The Brief

Recent fixes to long-standing problems at the Federal Emergency Management Agency are in jeopardy as the Trump administration slashes programs and cuts staff, emergency experts warn.

FEMA has been plagued for decades by accusations that it fails to help the most vulnerable victims of disasters. Poor people, racial minorities and those who live in rural and tribal areas have been chronically ignored or denied crucial help after disasters, with long-term and even deadly consequences for families, NPR investigations have found.

Under the Biden administration, FEMA took some concrete steps to address those problems. For example, the agency simplified forms that disaster victims must fill out to apply for money, loosened requirements to prove residency and made some money for essential items like food and diapers available immediately.

Now, some of those efforts have been canceled, while others face an uncertain future. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that he believed FEMA should not exist in its current form. He has also moved to eliminate so-called equity programs meant to ensure that the federal government serves Americans from all economic, geographic and ethnic groups.

The agency has cut billions of dollars of programs and lost hundreds of staff. A recent White House budget request for FEMA included a significant increase in disaster relief funding, but a presidentially appointed FEMA review council is working on recommendations to pare down or eliminate the agency.

FEMA did not respond to questions from NPR about how it intends to help all Americans adequately after disasters, or whether reforms made under the Biden administration will be rolled back.

"There was a lot of headway being made," says Chauncia Willis-Johnson, the former emergency manager for Tampa, Fla., and the leader of the Institute for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Management. "Now, not only have we stopped, but we've actually regressed."

Baby steps for a plagued agency

Under the Biden administration, the goal at FEMA was to make sure every disaster victim got what they needed to recover and be protected against the next disaster, says then-FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell. "No two communities are alike, they all have different needs, and we can't apply a one-size-fits-all application of programs," she explains. "And so that was the focus: equity."

For example, imagine two different people, both struggling after a hurricane: The first is a parent who rented a now-damaged apartment in a city. The second is an elderly person who owns a damaged house in a rural area. One might need immediate cash to get food and diapers and pay for a hotel. The other might need in-person help filling out forms online or transportation to pick up crucial medication.

FEMA also brought in a high-level advocate for rural communities, and another one for tribal communities, to help the agency serve those populations better. And FEMA made it easier for people to prove where they lived, especially if they were living in a family home that had been passed down over many generations and no longer had a mortgage or a clear deed tied to the current occupants.

People who are staying with family members without a lease agreement, or who have inherited property informally, have long struggled to get federal help rebuilding after extreme weather, despite the fact that such families are less likely to have home insurance.

While the long-standing problems at FEMA were far from fixed at the end of the Biden administration, such equity policies were a step in the right direction, according to disaster experts.

"Was FEMA necessarily doing a good job? They weren't perfect," says Willis-Johnson. But "there were a lot of positive movements made within the last five years."

Donnie Speight's home in DeQuincy, La., was badly damaged by a hurricane in 2020. She struggled to get adequate assistance from FEMA, and spoke to NPR for an investigation that found the agency chronically ignored and failed to help those who needed it the most. Biden-era reforms meant to correct that pattern are now in jeopardy.

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Ryan Kellman

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NPR

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Serving those most in need

One of President Trump's first actions when he took office in January was to sign an executive order banning so-called diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across the federal government. That order led to the cancellation of at least one major disaster staffing program, known as FEMA Corps, which trained and deployed young people to help after disasters.

Earlier this spring, FEMA also canceled a major disaster preparedness grant program that had awarded tens of billions of dollars to help underserved rural communities prepare for floods, wildfires and other extreme events that are getting more common as the climate changes.

The program had also helped some small towns and tribal communities by providing technical aid in applying for highly sought after federal funds. "We wanted them to have a fair shot at the funding that was out there," Criswell explains. Now, that assistance is gone.

Some equity efforts put into place at FEMA appear to still be intact. Last year, the agency made it easier for individuals and families to apply for money after disasters, by combining redundant forms and paying disaster survivors up to $750 to cover immediate needs such as food, water, medication and diapers. That assistance was expected to be particularly helpful for survivors who do not have a lot of money saved and who don't have homeowner's or renter's insurance.

Such efforts are a step in the right direction, says Manann Donoghoe, who studies disaster recovery at the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan policy research organization in Washington, D.C. "Some individuals are more vulnerable than others, and we need a system that understands and reacts to that," he explains.

The importance of boots on the ground

Between the cancellation of FEMA Corps, firing of probationary employees and a raft of retirements and resignations across the agency, FEMA is grappling with a large number of staff vacancies going into the summer months, when hurricanes, wildfires, floods and other extreme weather get more common in the U.S.

That may mean fewer federally trained disaster responders on the ground than in past years and potentially less equitable aid distribution.

The profound importance of boots on the ground was made clear in 2020. After wildfires in Oregon destroyed thousands of homes, many of them in low-income rural parts of the state, FEMA denied about 70% of assistance applications, an NPR investigation found.

"I was talking to our team on the ground," remembers Criswell, who took over as FEMA's leader shortly after the wildfires. "They were telling me how there [were] a large number of people that were denied assistance. But they could see there was enormous need."

Criswell says FEMA workers called back everybody whose application had been denied and found that many people were actually eligible for money but had filled out forms incorrectly or incompletely. FEMA workers on the ground in Oregon "were actually able to get a good percentage of them assistance just by taking the time to go over them with it," Criswell says.

It was an example of how important on-the-ground federal workers can be for victims of disasters, especially those who may not be proficient with a computer or able to fill out complex forms without help, says Criswell.

Willis-Johnson says expanding in-person assistance and knocking on doors after disasters was a crucial step in the right direction for an agency that has long failed to serve Black disaster survivors and other marginalized groups. "FEMA was going into the underserved neighborhoods to make people aware of their options, and making them aware of the need to fill out post-disaster recovery assistance forms," Willis-Johnson says.

Now, she is worried that vulnerable people will struggle to get basic help after disasters. "Why would we ever want people to suffer?" she says. "You shouldn't want that. It's not OK."

Copyright 2025 NPR

During a summer in which West Nile virus has jumped to record levels statewide, 17 Long Beach residents have contracted the mosquito-borne illness — far surpassing this time last year and the highest in more than a decade, according to the city’s health department.

Cases have been unusually severe: 69% involved neuroinvasive West Nile, the form that attacks the brain or nervous system, and 81% of those infected required hospitalization.

The first cases surfaced in late June, but officials detected mosquitoes carrying the disease as early as May, a sign the season — which typically runs July to October — may be stretching longer than usual. Health officials expect infections to continue through early fall, typically peaking in September.

This comes after repeated years of virtually no infections seen in the city. Last year there was one human case of West Nile citywide, with zero cases in 2024, one in 2023 and four in 2022.

Since the disease was first detected here in 2003, the number of cases has reached double digits in 2015, 2017 and a high of 56 cases in 2014.

Dr. Cliff Okada, Long Beach’s city health officer, said the virus tends to fluctuate unpredictably from year to year. “I can’t really give you a straight answer as to why this number is so high this year,” he said, but cited climate change and rising temperatures as potential factors, as well as improved surveillance locally.

With the exception of a high concentration of cases in the 90803 ZIP code, Dr. Okada said infections are dispersed fairly evenly citywide. He didn’t want to reveal locations as it would create the impression that some parts of the city “are more dangerous than others.”

Three agencies share responsibility for mosquito control in the city: the Los Angeles County Vector Control District covers the northern and eastern areas, and Long Beach’s own district manages the remainder.

Suzanne Kluh of the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District, which handles parts of North Long Beach as well as some of the city’s eastern neighborhoods, attributed much of the surge to the “warmest winter on record,” followed by a punishing summer heat wave.

It’s really just a numbers game. Those conditions, paired with unusually high humidity, have made it ripe for mosquitoes to multiply. A decline in bird immunity over the past five or six years has compounded the problem, since the virus circulates primarily between birds and mosquitoes before spreading to people.

In response, workers have intensified efforts to kill down the number of Culex mosquitoes — the species responsible for local transmission — by targeting the larvae that fester in storm drains, street gutters and smaller estuaries like marshes and ponds.

They’ve also tried to disperse or move crow roosts, such as one at El Dorado Park, so as to limit the spread among birds that later forage in nearby neighborhoods. Even so, mosquitoes are resourceful.

“They’ll breed in a bucket if it has enough water in somebody’s backyard,” Kluh said

The outbreak in Long Beach mirrors a broader spike across Los Angeles County and California. The county, whose case count excludes Long Beach and Pasadena, reported 15 cases and its first death of the year on Aug. 20.

“This tragic loss is a reminder of the serious threat posed by mosquito-borne diseases, including West Nile virus and dengue,” said Dr. Muntu Davis, the county’s health officer. He urged residents to take basic precautions.

Statewide, West Nile activity has reached a five-year high, with 65 human cases and five deaths confirmed across 16 counties as of Aug. 28, according to the California Department of Public Health. Since 2003, the state has recorded more than 8,000 cases and over 400 deaths, making it California’s most common and serious vector-borne disease.

How to recognize West Nile symptoms

West Nile is transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes; symptoms typically include fevers, headaches or stomach pain, which generally pass after a few days. The virus can be fatal for those with weaker immune systems, particularly the elderly.

Most infections go unnoticed — about 80% of people show no symptoms — but in about one in 150 cases, the virus turns serious, causing brain inflammation, meningitis, encephalitis or paralysis. There is no vaccine or specific treatment.

Those over 55 and people with diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease or weakened immune systems face the highest risk, and officials urge anyone with a high fever, stiff neck, confusion or muscle weakness to seek care immediately.

The business of military contracting is booming in Southern California.

The total value of defense contracts won by companies in Los Angeles County more than doubled in the last 10 years after adjusting for inflation, according to an analysis by CalMatters and The Markup. In the same period, the defense budget rose by about 19% in adjusted dollars.

The $15 billion in contracts won in L.A. County last year went largely to old-school defense contractors with headquarters elsewhere, like Boeing. But startups claimed a growing share of the pie, selling defense systems like low-cost missiles, drones, surveillance satellites, AI tools and much more. In 2025, 10 startups in the L.A. area were crowned “unicorns,” becoming companies valued by investments at more than $1 billion, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal. Most of those 10 companies were aerospace or defense businesses.

In 2015, 14 of the top 100 defense contracts won in California went to businesses focused on drones or space, according to the CalMatters and Markup analysis. By 2025, that share was up to 21. The shift is similar if measured by dollars, from 13%to 18%.

Details like whether you count obligations for where businesses are based or where the projects are launched all affect those numbers. By some counts the increases in contract dollars could be larger.

The contracts have been kindled by a surge of venture capital. Private investment in aerospace and defense since 2008 has fueled massive gains, according to a report from The Aerospace Corporation, a federally-funded nonprofit.

But all the new money is now causing awkward political tensions.

The war in Iran, which has depleted American munitions, is poised to drive demand even higher. The Trump administration’s latest budget proposal includes a record-setting $1.5 trillion for the military. Meanwhile, the Defense Department has signed off on the earliest contracts for the “Golden Dome,” a proposal to build a missile-defense system above the United States that may eventually cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

Most of the Golden Dome winners are based in or have ties to the Southern California area.

“You saw this huge rise in capital and now you're seeing just much, much bigger government budgets for space,” said Sam Wilson, a researcher at the Aerospace Corporation.

The collision of venture capital and military spending has alarmed some advocates, who see a frightening trend toward privatization and the risk of a space arms race. Even Congressional Democrats are pushing back against the spending.

That’s noteworthy because it has tended “to be a bipartisan, equal effort to increase the budget” of the military, said Lindsay Koshgarian, director of the National Priorities Project, which tracks defense spending. “I think we are maybe seeing the limits of that now.”

Despite the pushback, some of the congressional districts that saw the largest defense contract increases in recent years are beneficiaries of signature Trump-era projects. Many are in solidly blue Los Angeles County, and among the most Democrat-leaning districts in the country.

California’s 36th Congressional District includes El Segundo, a high-tech defense hub outside Los Angeles. In the district’s 2024 House race, incumbent Democrat Ted Lieu took nearly 70 percent of the vote over a Republican challenger. The increase in defense contracts between 2015 and 2025 in that district alone was more than $3.3 billion.

Another district, California’s 43rd, is represented by Maxine Waters, who in 2021 signed on to the proposed No Militarization of Space Act, which described the Space Force as an unnecessary waste of resources and sought to abolish it.

Trump recently proposed to double the budget of the Space Force, another potential boon to the area. Meanwhile, Waters’ district has seen its share of obligated defense department spending grow over the last decade by more than $1.6 billion, or more than 500%, adjusted for inflation. Waters’ office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Seamus Daniels, who studies the defense budget at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the proposed $1.5 trillion dollar defense budget for fiscal year 2027 “would surpass the peak of defense spending during World War II.”

The administration is seeking that money in place of traditional Democratic priorities, like healthcare funding, he points out. “The budget requests of the second Trump administration have been contentious because, while they have sought to increase defense spending dramatically, they're also aiming to cut non-defense spending,” Daniels said.

Koshgarian said Democrats have largely been open to an increased defense budget, especially if it brings money to their congressional districts. But that may be changing.

“That tension is definitely real, even in left districts,” she said. “But I think we're reaching a level of extremity now that that might be starting to flip.”

A new chapter

There’s no question California has become a major player in defense technology.

Every year, the Silicon Valley Defense Group, an industry nonprofit promoting military technology, releases a list of the top 100 tech-forward national security companies. When they charted the companies’ headquarters by state for 2026, they found that 47 were based in California, more than five times those in the number two state, Colorado.

It wasn’t always that way for California.

The state became a hub of manufacturing during World War II, building the planes en route to the Pacific Theater. During the Cold War, it was home to pioneering aerospace firms like Lockheed, Northrop, and Convair. But by the 1990s, the collapse of the Soviet Union gutted defense spending and consolidation stripped the region of its leadership, eventually sending Lockheed Martin’s headquarters to Maryland and Northrop Grumman’s to Virginia. Many were sounding the industry’s death knell. The nonprofit RAND Corporation noted that military aerospace sales peaked in 1987. They had declined by 32 percent just six years later.

The seeds of a comeback were sown when the Predator drone, built by General Atomics of San Diego, first took flight above the California desert in 1995. The craft, armed with Hellfire missiles, became the symbol of the War on Terror.

Then came the private investment surge, and an administration with new priorities.

As far back as the first months after Trump’s first inauguration, in 2017, aerospace industry

investors were celebrating massive stock gains. Government contracts have since turned defense companies like Costa Mesa-based Anduril into multi-billion-dollar operations.

Venture capital meets military dollars

Southern California likely benefits from the fact that the Space Force’s seed funding arm is based in El Segundo, where it decides where to send hundreds of millions of government dollars. The arm often chooses to fund companies in or around the small, seaside city, which has built buzz as ground zero for defense tech.

When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently went on tour to promote the "Arsenal of Freedom," a plan to massively increase munitions building, he told the workers at a Long Beach company, Rocket Lab, that “dominance of space” was key to the military’s future.

“This company, you right here, are front and center, as part of ensuring that we build an arsenal of freedom that America needs,” he said.

The partnership between private venture dollars and public defense contracts often unfolds like this: First, a startup comes up with a business plan for a product or service with military applications.

SpaceWERX, the El Segundo-based Space Force venture arm, selects some of these projects for early seed funding. Since 2021, SpaceWERX has awarded 380 contracts worth more than $461 million to businesses in California, more than any other state, SpaceWERX spokesperson Matthew Clouse said.

Private investors often follow on, seeing SpaceWERX money as a “demand signal,” said Arthur Grijalva, director of SpaceWERX. Billions have flowed into California-based companies in recent years this way.

Some local politicians have spent years pushing for similar investment in local military applications. El Segundo Mayor Chris Pimentel said he and his team traveled north in the state to personally court financiers while dealing with an enormous business dip early in the pandemic.

“It really paid off with large dividends,” he said. “We started showing up and being in the room with some of the larger venture funds and saying, ‘we can make these things happen down here. We can build stuff.’"

“Agnostic of politics and agnostic of individual ideologies, our core belief is that this is where the future has been made historically,” he said, pointing to Southern California’s long aviation history.

Some companies that take Defense Department contracts, like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which started in the Los Angeles area, are now valued at billions. SpaceX's recent initial public offering became, by far, the biggest IPO of all time in June.

Other small space companies are rapidly building with government contracts. True Anomaly, a space defense company, was founded in Colorado in 2022 but now has its largest office in Long Beach. “When you're building this type of company, it's frankly somewhat of a necessity to have a footprint here,” said Chief Financial Officer Mark Seidel.

The company has worked on Space Force missions and was recently announced as a contractor for the Golden Dome project. In April, a $650 million funding round put the company at a valuation of more than $2 billion.

The increasing spending, while bringing jobs to some parts of the country, continues to rile critics.

“We very much risk getting into a space arms race, where China invests more, so we invest more so China invests more and we invest more,” Koshgarian said. “Where does it stop?”

Data from usaspending.gov for Defense Department obligations to organizations listing a California address. Awards may be to California businesses for projects in another area. Download our data here. 

Mohamed Al Elew contributed data editing to this report.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

This story first appeared on Long Beach Post.

Long Beach may soon be leading the charge to regulate social media. A watershed bill proposed by the city’s state assemblymember is expected to soon become law in California, prohibiting social media platforms from providing addictive features to kids under age 16.

The California legislature on Monday unanimously passed the bill, which will now head to the desk of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has previously expressed support. “I’m very optimistic that this bill will get signed into law,” said Democratic Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal, the bill’s author.

If passed, the legislation would go into effect in January 2027 and prohibit young users from accessing social media platforms that include addictive features — including infinite scroll, autoplay, algorithms and notifications — and authorize the state attorney general to implement and enforce the restrictions. It represents a massive step for the nation’s most populous state, which has led the charge on tech policy, experts say, and where concerns about the harms of youth screen time have mounted.

The ban would apply to social platforms heavily used by young people, including Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube. Platforms can become “good actors” and continue offering services to young people if they remove addictive features, Lowenthal said.

Yet because these and other platforms continue to evolve, the bill establishes an independent advisory commission to continue monitoring platforms and the features they offer to children.

Age-gating has raised privacy concerns because it could require the collection of sensitive information that may lead to the loss of anonymity on the internet, yet Lowenthal said the bill would leverage existing law that allows for verification on the device level, meaning in most cases, users won’t have to present government-issued identification.

The bill has also elicited fears about infringement on First Amendment rights, given that young people are constitutionally entitled to speak and access speech on social media. But Lowenthal said “this is a public health crisis” that must take precedence. That priority is bolstered by the American Academy of Pediatrics’ support of the bill, he said.

“Young people are allowed to ride bicycles and skateboards just like adults, but they’re required to wear helmets because of the unique developmental concerns,” he said. “This is no different.”

Previous court rulings in New Mexico and Los Angeles, as well as a recent settlement that required Meta to pay $17.1 billion, were a start but don’t go far enough, Lowenthal said. State Attorney General Rob Bonta, who co-led the case against Meta, referred to the settlement as “a floor conceptually, not a ceiling,” CNBC reported.

Lowenthal aims to go further, and his bill has elicited widespread bipartisan support, which he attributed to leading as parents before policymakers.

Since the bill was first introduced, Lowenthal said he’s observed a sea change throughout California, the country and world. “Families want relief” from the platforms that many children report using for nearly five hours a day, he said. “They’re unwilling to tolerate the status quo, and AB 1709 gets to the heart of the matter.”

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

A recently expanded eligibility map determines who can get recovery assistance after the Lineage warehouse fire — from free air purifiers and masks to grocery vouchers and utility assistance. 

But not everyone qualifies for the same support, and help depends on where you live. 

The map is used by Lineage, as well as by some outside agencies, and was recently expanded to cover a larger part of unincorporated East L.A.

Here’s a breakdown of the boundaries and what is available in each zone. 

What are the boundaries? 

The map covers households located between Union Pacific Avenue and the 5 Freeway, Los Palos Street and Herbert Avenue; all less than one mile from the Lineage warehouse.

Lineage says there are 797 households located within this area. 

What support do people living within the boundary qualify for? 

Here’s a list of resources offered by Lineage, as well as what the city, county and other agencies are doing for residents living in these areas. 

Zone 1 (Between Los Palos and Indiana Streets):

• Housing vouchers for short-term hotel rentals through Airbnb
• Grocery vouchers redeemable at Food4Less and Kroger
• Air purifiers, air conditioning units and N95 masks
• Bottled water
• Fly traps
• $200 utility credit through the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
• Cash assistance 

Zone 2 (Between Indiana Street and Hicks Avenue):

• Housing vouchers for short-term hotel rentals through Airbnb
• Grocery vouchers redeemable at Food4Less and Kroger
• Air purifiers, air conditioning units and N95 masks
• Bottled water
• Fly traps
• $200 utility credit through Southern California Edison (SCE)
• Cash assistance 

Zone 3 (Between Hicks and Herbert Avenues): 

• Housing vouchers for short-term hotel rentals through Airbnb
• Grocery vouchers redeemable at Food4Less and Kroger
• Air purifiers, air conditioning units and N95 masks
• Bottled water
• Fly traps
• $200 utility credit through SCE

Who created the map? 

The map with the outlined resources was presented by Lineage at an AQMD Hearing on Aug. 6.

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The map’s origin dates back to the first few weeks of the fire. On July 9, Lineage announced a new wave of support at a community town hall held at Stevenson Middle School that included temporary housing, grocery vouchers and cash assistance. 

The next day, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass announced that 211LA and Airbnb had partnered up to provide temporary housing for residents and shared the map of qualifying households, which Lineage later designated Zone 1 and 2. 

The map was extended last month to cover a larger part of East L.A. after L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis pushed for more support, according to her office.

Solis advocated for more support for East L.A. after the unincorporated community was initially left out of utility assistance credits that were provided to Boyle Heights customers in July. 

Officials have given conflicting answers when asked by Boyle Heights Beat about who created the map and determined which households would receive assistance. 

According to Lineage, the area was designated by the city and county. However, supervisor Solis’ office told The Beat that they had no say in the original map but advocated for the area to be extended. 

Both 211LA and the city’s Community Investment Department said they did not create the map. Abigail Marquez, general manager of the Community Investment Department, said her office used existing maps developed by the city’s Emergency Management Department. The Emergency Management Department did not respond to an inquiry about the map’s origin. 

How has support been provided? 

Lineage says it has conducted five rounds of door-to-door outreach to the 797 households identified within the boundary since the fire began. As of Aug. 25, Lineage said it had successfully made contact with 718 households to provide the support outlined.

“For households where residents were not home, teams left information on how to access available assistance through Lineage’s community support line and made repeated attempts to reach them,” a Lineage spokesperson told The Beat. 

According to Lineage, community assistance provided as of last week includes 613 air purifiers, 669 portable air-conditioning units, 599 N95 masks, 638 cases of bottled water, 1,223 grocery vouchers and 1,989 fly traps.

Residents living near the warehouse can request direct support from Lineage using their online form. The form notes that Lineage support is only available for households located between Los Palos Street and South Herbert Avenue and between the I-5 and Union Pacific Avenue.  

Lineage can also be reached by emailing boyleheights@onelineage.com or calling (866) 317-1115 for bilingual assistance. 

I live outside of the boundary. Where can I get support?

While not all residents impacted by the fire qualify for direct support from Lineage, there are still opportunities to receive resources and information, including: 

Community Resource Center at Boyle Heights City Hall

Residents of Boyle Heights and nearby communities can access recovery resources and information on various city and county programs related to Lineage recovery.

Free Community Mobile Health Clinics

The free clinics offer respiratory health screenings, eye and skin irritation evaluations, health education on smoke exposure, mental-health support and more. No appointments are required. 

L.A. County Department of Health Services

St. John’s Mobile Clinic

For more information about available resources, mobile clinic schedules and announcements, visit emergency.lacity.gov/BoyleHeightsRecovery.