Liberal Gov. Stein is making the conservative case for FEMA | Opinion

It’s a classic Trump-era irony: The president’s polarizing voice has triggered a burst of bipartisan agreement.

When President Donald Trump floated the notion of scrapping FEMA entirely after Hurricane Helene, it sounded like the start of another bare-knuckle partisan fight. Instead, it sparked a rare consensus: FEMA is flawed, but it’s also essential.

Right now, the surprisingly high-profile defender of that notion is North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein. And in another ironic twist, the most liberal governor North Carolina has ever elected is sounding . . . conservative.

Over the past two weeks, Stein has launched a media blitz to rescue FEMA from its own dysfunction — and from the president’s crosshairs. He’s appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, penned an op-ed in USA Today, lobbied Republican U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd and written directly to the Trump administration with proposed reforms.

His argument is simple: Disaster response is a core function of the federal government, and it saves money and gets better results if states don’t go it alone.

“It’s about streamlining and reforming and improving FEMA, not eliminating it,” Stein said in a recent podcast interview with Spectrum News.

That may not sound revolutionary, but in today’s political climate, it’s a noteworthy response. Where many Democrats, like former Gov. Roy Cooper, may have used Trump’s comments to raise money or fire up the base, Stein is taking a different tack. He’s responding thoughtfully, and with a message that Republicans might actually hear.

A convenient punching bag

FEMA makes for a convenient punching bag. After any disaster, emotions are raw as survivors try to make sense of their losses. When calls go to voicemail or a form gets rejected on a technicality, the natural response is anger.

Police officers often talk about trying to give people grace because they recognize they’re meeting everyone on the worst day of their life. FEMA workers are in the same position but may not always realize it, or be equipped to respond.

That doesn’t mean FEMA gets a pass, of course, and there were plenty of problems with its response to Hurricane Helene. Red tape kept people waiting for temporary housing. It took multiple calls from elected officials to get FEMA to extend hotel vouchers to keep people from being turned out into a snowstorm.

North Carolina’s own shortcomings made matters worse. An after-action report from the state’s Emergency Management Division showed deep cracks in the response to Helene — unclear communications, insufficient coordination with counties and a lack of planning around debris and housing. FEMA may have failed in some areas, but so did the state.

Still, it would’ve been easy — even expected — for Stein to point fingers or escalate the fight as President Trump continues down the path toward eliminating FEMA. Instead, he’s lowering the temperature.

Conservative argument for federalism

Trump’s proposal to eliminate FEMA might be a negotiation tactic rather than a policy plan. He’s known for throwing rhetorical grenades to draw people to the table. Some see that as bluster, while others see leverage.

Either way, if the goal is to force FEMA to improve, there’s plenty of common ground. And Stein is proving to be an effective messenger.

He’s called for FEMA to be faster, more flexible, and less redundant. He wants a single application process, more upfront money for permanent repairs and greater use of block grants to give states more discretion.

This isn’t the burn-it-down approach of the MAGA right, nor is it a progressive defense of bureaucracy. It’s something rarer these days: a sober, statesmanlike argument for targeted federal responsibility and reform.

As a conservative, I’ve long believed in limiting federal power. I’ve written before that North Carolina should stop waiting on Washington and take control of its own future. So I sympathize with Trump’s instinct to scrap FEMA entirely. There’s philosophical merit to the idea.

The federal government tries to do too much. State governments are more nimble, more accountable. Pushing power down is almost always the right move. But not in every case.

President Reagan famously said the nine scariest words in the English language were: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” And yet Reagan also signed the Stafford Act — the law that governs FEMA to this day. That law has real flaws, and some of them are exactly what we’re grappling with now.

That’s another classic Trump-era irony. The liberal governor of North Carolina is defending FEMA with a Reaganesque argument, to preserve a program the Gipper helped create.

I still believe in federalism. But on this one, Stein has convinced me. FEMA needs to stay.

This story was originally published June 8, 2025 at 5:00 AM.