Shortly after the May 16 tornado damaged thousands of homes in the St. Louis area, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley promised to be like a “dog on a bone” to deliver federal relief.
Three weeks after the tornado, President Donald Trump still hasn’t signed Gov. Mike Kehoe’s major disaster declaration for individual assistance. Scores of St. Louis residents are struggling to find stable shelter.
In an interview on Thursday with St. Louis Public Radio, Hawley said he wasn’t sure if the Federal Emergency Management Agency delivered an official recommendation yet on Kehoe’s disaster declaration request. He said that’s one of the steps that’s usually taken so that a president can be informed on whether to accept or reject federal disaster relief.
FEMA didn’t immediately reply to an inquiry from St. Louis Public Radio about the status of Kehoe’s disaster declaration request. The president makes the final call on whether to grant relief and can reject assistance even if FEMA recommends approving a governor’s disaster declaration.
Here’s more of Hawley’s interview with St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum. Questions and answers have been edited for clarity and length.
Jason Rosenbaum: It has been almost three weeks since the tornado ripped through St. Louis and St. Louis County. What is your reaction to the fact that President Trump has not signed Gov. Kehoe’s major disaster declaration request for FEMA individual assistance?
Josh Hawley: No. 1, we need the assistance. I've talked to the president about this multiple times. Of course, I've seen it for myself. I've talked with the folks who lost their homes, lost their churches. I've walked the neighborhoods. And we're still talking to them. I mean, the day after I was there, my office talked to almost three dozen people individually, just following up with questions, following up with how we can help them. So we need that assistance, as I said to the president.
Now, after I talked to the president, he signed two of our disaster declarations [from earlier storms]. I'll be honest with you, though, on this third one. I don't know if FEMA has processed it yet, and this gets into a big issue that I've got with FEMA right now. They are slow-walking everything.
Because the way it works, the bureaucracy in FEMA has to approve it and make a recommendation before it even goes to the president under the statute. And what I discovered is they are slow-walking every disaster relief declaration from across the country. So this has got to stop. And I've talked to the FEMA administrator about this. And believe me, I'm tracking basically hour by hour our disaster declarations. We've gotten two of them approved. We need this third one, and I hope it'll be soon.
Rosenbaum: Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said she wants FEMA to supplement efforts of local and state governmental emergency responses to disasters. And the City of St. Louis is planning on spending millions of dollars of its Rams settlement. The state is prepared to step up with hundreds of millions of dollars of direct and tax credit level relief. Why can't the federal government act more nimbly when you know that the need is so great throughout St. Louis?
Hawley: Well, this is a terrific point. And the truth is that we do things differently for tornadoes than hurricanes, for example. And I think we shouldn't. In hurricanes, you can get a pre-disaster declaration that actually unlocks all kinds of funding and money before the storm even hits. So that when it does hit, boom, the relief is available.
For tornadoes, for floods, which, of course, are the two things that really affect our state, you've got to go through this long backend process where FEMA comes out. And they do assessments. And then the state makes a request. And then FEMA looks at it. And then they make a recommendation. And then it goes to the president. I mean, it is long. It is cumbersome.
And particularly for FEMA in the last few years, it's taking way too long. And I'll just go back to where we started. We need the assistance. And for some of these folks, a lot of these folks, they don't have insurance. They are going to need that individual assistance from the federal government. It's what we pay our taxes for. And just looking at the damage – if these good people do not get individual assistance, I don't know how these neighborhoods will be rebuilt. And we have to rebuild them.
Rosenbaum: A lot of our listeners and some of the people within north St Louis that me and my colleagues have talked to don't believe Trump will provide aid to St. Louis and St. Louis County. What are you going to do as a senator to hold the administration's feet to the fire? And particularly President Trump, since this is his decision to make sure people get the aid they need?
Hawley: The president has thankfully provided relief to Missouri. He's shown he will do it, including individual assistance. I will continue to intervene until we get what we need all over the state. And that absolutely, emphatically includes St. Louis.
Rosenbaum: Are you willing to hold up nominees or hold up legislation to make sure this gets done faster?
Hawley: I am willing to do whatever it takes. And I have confidence that we're going to get the relief St. Louis deserves and qualifies for within the statute.
