***IMMEDIATE ACTION***THE TRAGIC EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL WILL GET WORSE [7-13-25]
On July 4th, catastrophic flooding caused central Texas’ Guadalupe River to rise 26+ feet in just 45 minutes, sweeping away people, including children at summer camps, homes and businesses. At least 120 died, and nearly 200 are still missing.
DOGE’s devastating attacks on the administrative state seriously weakened the National Weather Service (NWS) and NOAA, its parent agency, which forecast weather and collect environmental data, and FEMA, which coordinates responses to natural disasters—both perennially underfunded:
600 NWS workers eliminated, including the area’s unreplaced warning coordination meteorologist;
1000 NOAA workers fired;
FEMA staffing cut by 20%.
While FEMA typically immediately deploys search and rescue teams and aerial imagery to aid them, deployment was delayed 72 hours waiting for Kristi Noem’s new requirement that every contract over $100,000 have her personal sign-off—absurd since disaster responses routinely cost billions. So were her contract renewals for those answering disaster call center phones, leaving desperate victims dangling. And, despite NWS’s timely flood warnings, there was no warning coordinator to pass them on to local emergency management officials.
As Senator Wyden stressed, “Kids in Texas died as a direct result of Kristi Noem’s negligence. She should be removed from office before her incompetence gets Oregonians killed in a wildfire.”
Our Members of Congress, however, must do much more than just demand investigations on how Trump’s, Musk’s, and Noem’s attacks on the NWS and FEMA hampered preparedness and response efforts. They must connect the dots repeatedly between GOP policy and its lethal consequences—the deaths and destruction across America caused by climate change—and hold Trump and Republicans accountable.
ACTION One: Call the Senate and the House.
SEN. MERKLEY: Portland office: 503-326-3386 | D.C. office: 202-224-3753
SEN. WYDEN: Portland office: 503-326-7525 | D.C. office: 202-224-5244
REP. BONAMICI: Oregon office: 503-469-6010 | D.C. office: 202-225-0855
REP. BENTZ: Medford office: 541-776-4646 | D.C. office: 202-224-3753
REP. DEXTER: Portland office: 503-231-2300 | D.C. office: 202-224-3753
REP. HOYLE: Eugene office: 541-465-6732 | D.C. office: 202-225-6416
REP. BYNUM: D.C. office: 202-225-5711
REP. SALINAS: Salem office: 503-385-0906 | D.C. office: 202-225-5643
