TNM Issues a Statement on Texas and FEMA Dollars
As Texas recovered from Hurricane Harvey, the Texas Nationalist Movement challenged the claim that Texas needs FEMA, noting that Texans pay far more into the federal system than they ever receive back.
As Texans reel from Hurricane Harvey, the familiar refrain that Texas needs FEMA is making the rounds again. Any notion that Texas depends on FEMA is misinformation at best.
FEMA does not do the immediate disaster relief. That work is done by the Texas Military Department, by state and local law enforcement, and by volunteers. FEMA's role is logistics and administration, much of which Texas is already doing when disaster strikes, and too often it gets in the way. During Hurricanes Rita and Ike, FEMA refused to distribute ice until county sheriffs ordered it done with or without authorization. During the Bastrop wildfires, it turned away firefighters who had come from across Texas to help.
What FEMA mostly does is hand out money. In the wake of Hurricane Ike, its assistance in Texas totaled roughly 2.7 billion dollars. Set that against the ledger: Texans pay approximately 100 to 120 billion dollars more into the federal system each year than they receive, which since Ike in 2008 is on the order of a trillion dollars in overpayments.
Every dollar FEMA spends in Texas comes first from the pockets of Texas taxpayers. FEMA exists to retroactively justify the taking of that money under the banner of a natural disaster. The truth is simpler, and Texans are proving it right now: Texans take care of Texans.
TNM Communications Office · media@thetnm.org · 800-662-1836
The Texas Nationalist Movement is the largest organization working to put a single question to the people of Texas in a binding, up-or-down vote: whether Texas should govern itself as an independent nation. 635,352 Texans across all 254 counties are on record in support. Learn more at tnm.me.