The power to grant a disaster declaration and access to the FEMA assistance programs for states hit by storms lies solely in the hands of President Trump, who wants to scale back FEMA and pass recovery costs to states. State officials say they’re not ready to take on that burden.
Phillip Powell, Arkansas Times
Prior to joining the Arkansas Times, Phillip Powell worked as a reporter on Capitol Hill as part of his graduate studies at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. His reporting focused on politics and foreign affairs. At Northwestern Medill, Phillip is taking part in large investigative projects with ProPublica and the Pittsburg Post-Gazette, along with building multimedia skills in podcasting, photography, and video journalism. He holds his bachelors degree in political science from Hendrix College, where he was a staff writer for The Profile and Editor-in-Chief of the award-winning Aonian Literary Magazine. He graduates from Northwestern in June with a Master of Science in Journalism.
