By Alex Nuti-di Biasi, for the Journal-Opinion
The Trump administration rejected a request from Gov. Phil Scott for a federal major disaster declaration for July 2025 flooding, reported VTDigger and other outlets.
“A federal disaster declaration would have unlocked Federal Emergency Management Agency funding to reimburse municipalities for 75% of the costs, including debris removal, road and public building repairs, and staff overtime during and after the storm.”
Illinois and Maryland were also denied disaster declarations, though the administration granted declarations for Alaska, Nebraska, North Dakota and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe for other disasters.
A denial such as this is not inconsequential for the Green Mountain State.
“With a population of 648,000 people, Vermont has historically relied on federal dollars for disaster response funding that state and local taxes alone can’t produce,” the Daily Yonder reported. “Between 2011-2024, rural counties in Vermont had among the greatest occurrences of federally-declared extreme weather disasters in the country, per a Daily Yonder analysis of data from Atlas of Accountability, a disaster-mapping project of New York University’s Rebuild by Design initiative.”
The Trump administration decision came just a few days after Grist reported that Vermont lost track of millions in FEMA funding it received for July 2024 flooding as the state burned through cash faster than anticipated.
Vague contract terms, pricey consultants, and poor oversight appear to be at least some of the culprits.
For a $2.9 million FEMA grant, the state turned to Guidehouse, a $7 billion multinational corporate contractor. Guidehouse then turned to the New England Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, or NEAC, to subcontract frontline workers.
“But that subcontract proved to be significantly narrower than what was in the FEMA agreement. NEAC would provide only four case managers, not seven, and just two construction coordinators, not three. Guidehouse would also pay the organization just $1,098,875 to get the job done, including a travel budget. That’s less than half what Guidehouse got from the state and what FEMA awarded for the work. It’s unclear exactly what the company’s plan was for the other $1.4 million, but the NEAC agreement lists six Guidehouse employees working on the project — a nearly 1:1 ratio with frontline workers.”
Inefficiency and overhead appear to be recurring themes when it comes to FEMA and flood recovery in Vermont.
Shortly before the July 2024 flooding, Vermont Public reported that FEMA spent more on administrative fees than assistance following the July 2023 flooding.
“Public records requests that show the agency had, as of March 4 [2024], incurred administrative costs of $78.3 million on a recovery mission that’s distributed about $43 million in individual assistance to flood survivors.”