As CNN reported, the Trump administration imposed a policy requiring Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s personal approval for every FEMA contract or grant exceeding $100,000 — including those needed for emergency response. 

As floodwaters rose across Central Texas, Noem didn’t authorize the deployment of urban search and rescue teams until more than 72 hours after the flooding began, missing a critical window for saving lives. The New York Times reported that FEMA failed to answer the vast majority of disaster assistance calls on July 6 and 7, after contractor staffing lapsed under Noem's new policy.

CNN and MSNBC aired reports on the story:

• During The Briefing with Jen Psaki, host Jen Psaki described the Trump administration's claim that FEMA responded “as fast as anybody has ever seen” and cut through paperwork to respond quickly as a “stunning” example of officials “lying to our faces.” She cited CNN reporting that FEMA was unable to position urban search and rescue teams for more than 72 hours due to a policy requiring Noem's personal approval from contracts more than $100,000. [MSNBC, The Briefing with Jen Psaki, 7/13/25]
• Anderson Cooper interviewed Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), former director of Florida’s Emergency Management Division, about FEMA’s response. Moskowitz said, “The idea that they weren’t activated within 24 hours — and it took three days for the secretary to make that decision — is not only unconscionable, it’s — I’ve never even heard of FEMA doing that. These decisions usually get made quickly.”  [CNN, Anderson Cooper 360, 7/11/25]
• On All In with Chris Hayes, host Chris Hayes described the $100,000 threshold not as red tape, but as part of “the intentional dismantling … of our emergency disaster response infrastructure.” He also noted that FEMA had been structurally weakened just as climate disasters become more severe and time-sensitive. [MSNBC, All In with Chris Hayes, 7/10/25]

Years before floodwaters overtook Camp Mystic and killed 27 campers and staff, FEMA approved multiple exemptions that removed dozens of the camp’s buildings from the official floodplain. That decision weakened regulations on construction and flood insurance and allowed development in an area long known to be at risk — despite increasingly severe flood events and updated private models warning otherwise. 

CNN and ABC reported on the exemptions:

• On CNN Newsroom, chief climate correspondent Bill Weir reported from just upriver of the camp, highlighting that “FEMA does not account for flash flooding in their flood risk models,” and adding, “Isn’t that crazy?” He noted that a model from the climate risk organization First Street Foundation had flagged far higher structural risk. [CNN Newsroom, 7/13/25]
• CNN This Morning Weekend reported that Camp Mystic won an appeal to FEMA in 2013 and 2019 to remove 15 at-risk buildings from FEMA’s flooding map, even though county officials submitted a report to FEMA in 2024 showing this area was vulnerable to flooding within a year. [CNN This Morning Weekend, 7/13/25]
• ABC's World News Tonight cited an Associated Press investigation revealing that Camp Mystic had been included in FEMA’s 2011 flood insurance map but was later removed — a move that reduced regulatory scrutiny and flood insurance requirements. FEMA, in response, asserted that its maps are not intended to predict future flooding. [ABC, World News Tonight, 7/12/25]
• During The Lead with Jake Tapper, anchor Jake Tapper interviewed New York Times reporter Mike Baker, who confirmed that Camp Mystic not only did not relocate vulnerable cabins from the flood zone, but also built new cabins “directly in the flood zone” — a decision that allowed development to continue in what would become the epicenter of the disaster. [CNN, The Lead with Jake Tapper, 7/11/25]

Despite having access to the federal government’s Integrated Public Alert & Warning System  — which allows local officials to push life-saving alerts to all phones in a geographic area — Kerr County never activated it as floodwaters rose. 

NBC, MSNBC, and CNN reported on the failure to use alerts:

• NBC’s Today spotlighted alert failures in Kerrville, where the city manager admitted that weather notifications were disabled on his phone when the Guadalupe River rose over 33 feet in hours. The segment noted that there are questions being raised about whether local officials could have done more to warn people in the flood zone. [NBC, Today, 7/14/25]
• On The Weekend, MSNBC cited new reporting that Kerr County officials failed to use FEMA's emergency messaging system as the flooding began. [MSNBC, The Weekend, 7/12/25]
• CNN Newsroom Live confirmed that some flood survivors received no mobile alerts before the river overtopped its banks. [CNN Newsroom Live, 7/12/25]
• During CNN News Central, Texas Tribune reporter Emily Foxhall joined to discuss the warning timeline before the flood, during which the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning at 1:14 a.m. “that should've given a chance for people to respond.” Foxhall noted the uncertainty around the alerts as reporters are still trying to determine “who got that warning and who was on the other side paying attention.” [CNN News Central, 7/9/25]

For years, officials and emergency managers have warned that rural Texas counties need better flood warning systems, like sirens and public alert infrastructure. But state lawmakers repeatedly declined to act, leaving vulnerable communities without critical tools. House Bill 13, which would have established a grant program and statewide emergency communications plan, failed in the Senate only months before the July 4 flooding. 

MSNBC covered the failure to fund sirens:

• On The Weekend, Texas state Sen. Roland Gutierrez criticized Republican state lawmakers for repeatedly refusing to update flood warning systems across the Hill Country. [MSNBC, The Weekend, 7/12/25]
• During Katy Tur Reports, Katy Tur asked a panelist about reporting that GOP lawmakers declined to fund a siren system for Kerr County because of cost, despite multiple prior flood disasters and well-documented risk. [MSNBC, Katy Tur Reports, 7/8/25]

In the aftermath of the Texas floods, several national TV segments directly linked the storm’s intensity to climate change. Such coverage collectively surfaced key themes: the physical drivers of extreme rainfall and flooding, how outdated flood maps and degraded forecasting systems left communities exposed, and the connection between these vulnerabilities and political disinvestment in climate and emergence infrastructure. 

CNN and CBS aired such coverage:

• Appearing on CNN This Morning Weekend, Monica Medina, former deputy administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, agreed with a senator who called proposed 27% cuts to NOAA’s budget a “hallucination,” arguing that Republican policies “are leading to tragic and preventable deaths.” She stated bluntly that “our system isn’t up to the task of climate change” and that “the whole system is falling apart because Republicans are taking it apart and dismantling it and failing to fund it at the levels we need in order to meet the moment of climate change.” [CNN This Morning Weekend, 7/12/25]
• CBS Mornings’ Jason Allen reported from Kerrville on disputes over flood maps for “Flash Flood Alley,” saying some climate experts say federal maps “don’t factor in heavy rainfall and topography.” The segment featured University of Texas climatologist Jay Banner, who said that “in the same vein as we need to advance our climate modeling, … we also do the same with understanding what we call hydrologic processes — once the water is hitting the ground, where is it going.” [CBS Mornings, 7/11/25]
• On Early Start With Rahel Solomon, CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam described the storm as “a 1-in-100-year flood disaster” and cited climate change as the driver of increased rainfall intensity and frequency. He called the flooding an example of “weather whiplash” amplified by a warming atmosphere. [CNN, Early Start With Rahel Solomon, 7/8/25]

The Trump administration’s actions following the Texas floods cannot be viewed in isolation. 

Across agencies and programs, the administration is enacting an aggressive rollback of the very systems designed to forecast, warn about, and respond to extreme weather. The National Weather Service has lost hundreds of staff and key forecasters. FEMA officials have been stripped of authority, funding, and experienced personnel. Some of NOAA’s important research labs — including those responsible for hurricane modeling and flash flood forecasting — are slated for closure. Even the database used to track billion-dollar disasters is being eliminated, cutting off public visibility into the rising cost of climate-amplified events.

These actions represent a comprehensive retrenchment of the federal disaster safety net at a time when warming oceans, heavier rainfall, and rising risks demand more coordination, not less. When enacted, the administration’s 2026 budget would result in a generational loss of forecasting capability, emergency response speed, and scientific transparency.

The Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle FEMA, NOAA, and the National Weather Service are not aberrations; they are the logical outcome of a decadeslong climate denial campaign funded by the fossil fuel industry. This campaign has not only delayed climate action, but also normalized disinvestment in the very institutions meant to protect the public from its consequences.

National TV news has begun to confront this reality. Reporters and anchors are asking harder questions, identifying policy failures, and connecting infrastructure gaps to political choices. That pressure must not fade with the Texas flooding story. With another hurricane season underway, and with wildfires, heat waves, mountain flash floods, and inland deluges now sweeping regions nationwide, the public is more exposed than ever, and more dependent on accountability journalism to protect it.