FEMA has been deliberately delaying grants to blue states, putting American citizens and Indigenous tribal land at risk in order to carry out President Trump’s petty and vindictive agenda.
On Friday, The Washington Post reported that FEMA significantly decreased the amount of hazard-mitigation grants to Democratic-led states last year. From February to June 2025, the agency awarded $91 million per month, before reducing that to just $3 million a month for the rest of 2025. While the agency appeared to reverse course, approving grants worth $760 million in March after facing legal scrutiny, Colorado and California have still received barely any money since last summer.
California has only received $830,000 from FEMA since July 2025. Colorado has not received anything, according to the Post’s analysis.
Experts say this is a deliberate and targeted decision.
“There’s a pattern—a state like Colorado is repeatedly being denied FEMA aid and others like California are waiting on FEMA money that’s already been approved,” the Carnegie Endowment’s sustainability, climate, and geopolitics research assistant Debbra Goh told the Post. “Hazard-mitigation funding is designed to help communities prepare for the next disaster. Without it, communities are rebuilding into the same risk.”
Much of this funding delay is also due to former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s aggressive policy requiring that she personally sign off on any FEMA aid over $100,000.
“Communities still have damaged park facilities, fenced-off trailheads, and patched-up roadways that wash out in heavy rain because permanent work cannot move at full speed without the promised federal reimbursement,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said last month. “Schools still wait for dollars to rebuild facilities and classrooms that burned or were heavily damaged.”
Colorado Representative Joe Neguse noted that the delays also come in the face of evolving environmental issues.
“Climate change is a five-alarm fire—literally—for our state.… We’ve already had a number of fires, and I anticipate this year could be the most difficult fire season we’ve had in some time. And unfortunately, right now, we find ourselves at a time when the administration has no regard for the communities that it is supposed to serve,” Neguse said. “[Colorado is] entitled to the same relief that folks in Kentucky and South Carolina and other Republican states have been able to access.”
While the Trump administration claims there is “no politicization to the president’s decisions on disaster relief,” its past actions would suggest otherwise, as Trump denied disaster aid to blue states last October.