A massive winter storm threatening to blanket much of the United States with heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain is shaping up to be more than a weather emergency. As forecasts warn of dangerous conditions stretching from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic coast, the storm is emerging as a political and policy test for the Trump administration’s evolving approach to federal disaster assistance.
Meteorologists say the system could dump more than a foot of snow in some regions while triggering widespread ice accumulation and power outages elsewhere. The storm is expected to begin Friday and persist through Monday, affecting dozens of states and tens of millions of people. Governors across the country have begun declaring states of emergency, activating National Guard units, and mobilizing local resources in preparation for treacherous travel conditions and infrastructure damage.
But behind the scenes, state officials are grappling with a deeper concern: whether the White House will approve federal disaster aid requests if the storm’s impact proves severe.
President Donald Trump has set in motion efforts to curb what his administration views as overreliance on federal disaster funding, signaling a tougher stance toward approving emergency declarations. That approach has raised anxiety among governors and emergency managers who fear that even large-scale snowstorms may no longer qualify for federal assistance.
“They’re preparing for the worst,” said a former senior Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe ongoing discussions with state officials. “They’re preparing for no grants, no money.”
Concerns about potential aid denials intensified this week on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers flagged the issue in a report accompanying a proposed Department of Homeland Security spending plan for fiscal year 2026. The bipartisan report from House and Senate appropriators emphasized that snowstorms remain eligible for federal disaster relief under existing law.
The language was widely interpreted as a warning to the administration not to exclude winter storms from FEMA assistance.
A spokesperson for Delaware Democratic Sen. Chris Coons said the administration’s posture risked politicizing disaster response at a time when communities are most vulnerable.
“The willingness of President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to turn even the weather into a partisan issue and play politics with people’s lives may make an already bad situation somehow even worse,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, was even more blunt.
“Any notion that snowstorms don’t qualify as a disaster defies logic — and is unnecessarily cruel,” Thompson said in an email.
The White House rejected those criticisms, accusing Democrats of exaggerating the administration’s intentions.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said claims that the administration would abandon states in the storm’s path amounted to “fear-mongering” that “ignores reality.”
“Under the President’s leadership, FEMA, and the entire Administration, has proactively mobilized significant resources to support states in the path of this storm, ensuring a rapid and well-coordinated response,” Jackson said. “President Trump responds to each request for federal assistance with great care and consideration to ensure American tax dollars are used appropriately to supplement, not substitute, state obligations to respond to disasters — he will do the same for any requests received.”
Administration officials say the federal government has already taken extensive steps to prepare for the storm, regardless of future funding decisions.
According to an administration official granted anonymity to discuss logistics, FEMA and other agencies have pre-positioned supplies, equipment, and personnel at strategic hubs across the country. Those preparations include 250,000 meals, 400,000 liters of water, 30 generators, and 12 shuttle drivers staged in Louisiana, with additional transportation assets positioned in Pennsylvania, Texas, and Georgia.
The administration has also embedded 20 FEMA staff members in State Emergency Operations Centers and deployed three incident management teams. Additional teams, including search-and-rescue units, are on standby to deploy at the request of governors.
FEMA is actively monitoring the storm through its regional offices and at its Washington headquarters, coordinating with other federal agencies to support state and local response efforts.
The current controversy follows internal debates within the administration that surfaced publicly last year. In an internal memo, then–FEMA acting Administrator Cameron Hamilton suggested that disaster aid for snowstorms should be reconsidered or curtailed, arguing that such events are often predictable and should primarily fall under state and local responsibility.
No formal action has been taken on Hamilton’s proposals, but the memo fueled concerns that snowstorms could eventually be excluded from FEMA’s disaster portfolio.
Those fears were reinforced as Trump denied multiple gubernatorial requests for disaster aid in recent years — even in cases where FEMA had determined that damage exceeded the agency’s cost thresholds for federal assistance. The White House has not publicly explained the rationale behind several of those denials, adding to uncertainty among state emergency managers.
Under federal law, FEMA evaluates disaster requests and makes recommendations, but the president alone has the authority to approve or deny federal disaster declarations.
In Maryland, President Trump denied a July request from Democratic Gov. Wes Moore for disaster aid after extensive flooding damaged rural communities, many of them Republican-leaning. FEMA assessments found that damage ran into the millions of dollars above the agency’s threshold for aid eligibility.
Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen said the denial raised alarms about how the administration might handle future disasters.
“Now they want to arbitrarily deny disaster assistance to communities hit by snowstorms regardless of the severity of the event,” Van Hollen said. “As communities across the country prepare for this weekend’s snowstorm, this blanket policy is all the more alarming.”
A similarly controversial decision unfolded in Michigan last year. Trump approved some disaster aid following a devastating March ice storm that crippled power infrastructure in the northern part of the state. However, he denied a separate request from Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for $90 million to help two rural electric cooperatives repair damaged equipment. The utilities ultimately raised rates to cover the shortfall.
Federal disaster law explicitly lists snowstorms as qualifying events for disaster assistance, alongside floods, wildfires, hurricanes, and extreme winds. However, the statute does not mandate that the president approve aid for any particular event, leaving wide discretion to the White House.
Since 2016, presidents have approved 18 disaster declarations related to snowstorms, with FEMA spending about $272 million in total, according to Hamilton’s memo. Those figures represent a small fraction of FEMA’s overall disaster spending, which runs into the tens of billions of dollars.
Craig Fugate, who led FEMA during the Obama administration, said the issue highlights a longstanding tension between federal support and state responsibility.
“When budgets are lean and you’re not having a lot of snow, you cut those snow removal operations,” Fugate said. “Then when you get caught short you say, ‘Oh, well, the federal taxpayer will bail us out.’”
Fugate said FEMA historically tried to set thresholds so that only truly extraordinary winter storms triggered federal aid.
FEMA’s daily report Thursday showed that the agency currently has nearly 4,200 employees available for disaster deployment, a significant increase from the 2,400 available a year ago. The higher number reflects the Trump administration’s decision to reassign staff from state field offices to Washington headquarters.
As snow begins to fall and governors brace for the storm’s full impact, the coming days may reveal whether the administration’s emphasis on fiscal restraint translates into stricter disaster aid decisions — or whether political pressure and humanitarian need push the White House toward a more traditional federal response.
For now, state officials are preparing not only for hazardous weather, but for an uncertain federal safety net.
