Roger Marshall on Disaster Response: His Deciding Vote Against Releasing FEMA Money, the Noem and Mullin Confirmations, and Weather Service Cuts Before the Kansas Tornadoes

On April 23, 2026, Kansas Senator Roger Marshall voted against a budget measure to require FEMA to spend the money Congress had already appropriated for disaster recovery and hazard mitigation, and because it failed on a 49-49 tie, his vote decided it. At the time, internal documents showed that "FEMA owes communities almost $10 billion." A year earlier, Marshall had voted no on a measure affirming FEMA's role in disaster relief.

Marshall voted to confirm Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security, the department that runs FEMA. Under Noem, over 4,300 employees separated from FEMA in fiscal year 2025, FEMA ended its main disaster-prevention grant program until a court ruled that unlawful, and by the end of 2025 FEMA was sitting on more than $15 billion in unspent funds. He also voted to confirm Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, whose National Weather Service shed almost 600 employees in 2025; on April 13, 2026, the service forecast almost no chance of tornadoes in East Central Kansas before several tornadoes struck.

Roger Marshall's Votes on FEMA, Disaster Aid and Emergency Alerts

• Marshall Cast a Deciding Vote Against Requiring FEMA to Release Disaster Recovery Money in April 2026. On April 23, 2026, Roger Marshall voted no on Senator Adam Schiff's amendment to the budget resolution creating a reserve fund for legislation "requiring the obligation of amounts appropriated to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to carry out the public assistance and hazard mitigation programs." It failed 49-49, so a yes vote from Marshall would have adopted it. At the time, "FEMA owes communities almost $10 billion, according to internal agency documents," and the Congressional Research Service found that "HMGP has not been approved for a new major disaster declaration since March 18, 2025," so communities hit by storms since then have had no new federal hazard mitigation money to rebuild to a safer standard.
• Marshall Voted Against Affirming FEMA's Role in Disaster Relief in April 2025. On April 4, 2025, Marshall voted no on Senator Alex Padilla's amendment creating a reserve fund for legislation "relating to supporting the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the continued, central role of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in providing nonpartisan disaster relief, including long-term recovery assistance, to disaster survivors in all States, territories, and Tribal nations impacted by disasters." It failed 48-51. That spring the President said FEMA could be eliminated, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said "The President wants it eliminated as it currently exists". In fiscal 2025, over 4,300 employees separated from FEMA, about 17 percent of its staff, the Government Accountability Office found.
• Marshall Voted Against Budget Measures Supporting Wildland Firefighters and Rehiring Fired Land-Agency Staff in February 2025. On February 20, 2025, Marshall voted no on an amendment creating a reserve fund for legislation "supporting Federal wildland firefighters or other Federal personnel necessary for hazardous fuels management and community wildfire resilience," and the same day against an amendment for a reserve fund "relating to reinstating the fired Federal employees at the Forest Service, National Park Service, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Land Management" (roll call 68). Both failed 48-52. Internal data reported by ProPublica showed more than 4,500 Forest Service firefighting jobs, up to 27 percent, were vacant in July 2025; the Agriculture Department disputed the count.
• Marshall Voted to Cut Funding for the Public Stations That Broadcast Emergency Alerts in July 2025. On July 16, 2025, Marshall voted no on a motion to send the bill back to committee with changes that "would ensure that no recipient of funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that is designated as a Primary Entry Point ... in the Emergency Alert System would lose funding as a result of the rescissions in the bill," and the next day voted yes on the Rescissions Act, which ended federal funding for public broadcasting. High Plains Public Radio, which serves western Kansas, faces a loss of $550,000 over the next two years, or about 15% of its budget, KCUR reported.
• Marshall Voted to Confirm Kristi Noem, Under Whom FEMA Lost a Sixth of Its Staff and Sat on Billions in Disaster Money. On January 25, 2025, Marshall voted to confirm Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security, the department that runs FEMA. Under Noem, over 4,300 employees separated from FEMA in fiscal year 2025; she required that she "personally signs off on all funding requests for more than $100,000," and by the end of 2025 FEMA was sitting on more than $15 billion in unspent funds. After the July 4, 2025 Texas Hill Country flood, FEMA answered just over 15,000 of the approximately 55,000 calls from survivors seeking help with housing and food. FEMA also ended its largest disaster-prevention grant program; "On December 11, 2025, the judge issued a final ruling that the administration had unlawfully terminated BRIC," and FEMA reopened the program in 2026 under court order.
• Marshall Voted to Confirm Markwayne Mullin, Whose Department Denied a Record Number of Disaster Requests in 2026. On March 23, 2026, Marshall voted to confirm Markwayne Mullin as Secretary of Homeland Security. By late August 2026 the Trump administration denied 22 requests for major disaster declarations that year, the most since at least 2000, the Texas Tribune reported.
• Marshall Voted to Confirm Howard Lutnick, Whose Commerce Department Left the National Weather Service Short-Staffed. On February 18, 2025, Marshall voted to confirm Howard Lutnick as Secretary of Commerce, which runs NOAA and the National Weather Service. In March 2025 weather-balloon launches were cut at several offices "due to a lack of Weather Forecast Office (WFO) staffing", and by spring 2026 the weather service's forecasters and hydrologists numbered about 300 fewer than it had been in late 2024. In July 2026 members of Congress wrote that staffing shortages still force weather offices to delay morning balloon launches or cancel them, and NOAA said it will no longer be updating the Billion Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters database.

What the FEMA, Weather Service and Emergency-Alert Cuts Roger Marshall Backed Mean for Kansas

• Tornado forecasts. Early on April 13, 2026, the National Weather Service forecast almost no chance of tornadoes in East Central Kansas, and that evening several tornadoes struck, including in Ottawa. On the morning of the storms, "There were no balloons launched upstream of eastern Kansas ahead of April 13," according to a July 2026 letter from members of Congress, and when balloons did go up, "by then, storms were already brewing over Kansas," KCUR reported for NPR.
• Slower disaster aid. Kansans hit by storms face the national slowdown: in 2025 major disaster declarations came with an average wait of almost 34 days after a request, up from 24 days in Trump's first term, and the Associated Press noted that "The delays mean individuals must wait to receive federal aid for daily living expenses."

Frequently Asked Questions About Roger Marshall on Disaster response

Last updated: 2026-10-25

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