Cato Podcast
Cato Podcast
Cato Institute
The Disaster Aid System: How FEMA Rewards Risk
29 minutes Posted Nov 20, 2025 at 11:45 am.
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Show notes
FEMA was meant to help only when disasters exceeded state capacity. Yet today it functions primarily as a national subsidy machine, encouraging development in floodplains, bailing out wealthy coastal states, and shifting costs onto taxpayers far from the danger zones. The Cato Institute's Dominik Lett and Chris Edwards discuss how well-intentioned federal aid has created perverse incentives, bureaucratic delays, and a long tail of spending that continues decades after storms like Katrina.

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