Senator John Fetterman responded yesterday with this (I'll post a pdf of the letter at the bottom of this blog post::
Thank you for reaching out to my office. I appreciate hearing from you.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was created with a critical task in mind – helping the nation to prepare, respond, and recover from major disasters. When tragedy strikes, FEMA coordinates and funds efforts to keep Pennsylvanians and folks across the country safe, lending them a hand as they rebuild their communities.
Helping American communities prepare for, and recover from, natural disasters should not be a partisan issue. Historically, congress has come together on a bipartisan basis to make sure funding is available for hazard mitigation and rebuilding efforts. Sadly, this Administration has adopted the recommendations of Project 2025 and President Trump has stated that he wants to “wean” states off of FEMA assistance. These cuts are already hurting Pennsylvanians. Earlier this year, near my home in Allegheny County, FEMA cancelled a flood prevention grant in Bridgeville that was awarded after a fatal storm devastated the community in 2018.
Let me be clear: disaster relief is a bipartisan issue. Red and blue communities are impacted by catastrophes equally. As a member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, I am committed to doing everything I can to ensure that FEMA and other federal partners involved in disaster mitigation and recovery have the resources they need to continue to deliver for Pennsylvania and the nation.
Thank you again for contacting me to share your thoughts. Please do not hesitate to reach out in the future about other issues of importance to you. If I can be of assistance, or if you’d like to learn more about my work on behalf of Pennsylvanians and our commonwealth, I encourage you to visit my website, https://www.fetterman.senate.
gov/.
Nice to know that he appreciates hearing from me and that I should "not hesitate to reach out in the future about other issues of importance to" me. I'll definitely keep doing that, Senator. Definitely.
Anyway, as his letter mentions FEMA but not the date of any specific letter of mine, it has to be responding to one of these two letters:
- June 20, 2025 - when I asked about DHS Secretary Noem's plans on to abolish FEMA and how many of the proposals were outlined in the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 report.
- July 11, 2025 - when I asked about DHS Secretary Noem's disconnect between complaining about how slow FEMA reacts and how her own actions slowed down FEMA's actions after the devastating flooding in Texas.
Considering that the Senator's letter to me also mentions Project 2025 nobutt Texas, it's safe to assume he's responding to the former rather than the latter.
So how well does he do?
In that blog post after describing how Noem asked FEMA for a memo on how to dismantle itself, I asked:
Good idea? Bad idea? Do you support any of this, Senator Fetterman? And if not, when will you be making a public comment on it?
You can see his answer in the third and fourth paragraphs of his letter. Specifically:
Sadly, this Administration has adopted the recommendations of Project 2025 and President Trump has stated that he wants to “wean” states off of FEMA assistance. These cuts are already hurting Pennsylvanians.
And so on.
While not going as far as I would like, he's definitely in the "this is a bad idea" column. Good for him.
However, as there's also no mention of DHS Secretary Noem in his letter that means there's also place for the Senator to comment on the memo Noem asked for (or his vote to confirm her in that office, for that matter).
And that was kinda the point of my blog post.
It was certainly better than this "response" but still not enough.
Pennsylvanians deserve more.
