Trump signs order to shift disaster preparations from FEMA to states, local governments

state and local governments, deepening his drive to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The order, first previewed by the White House on March 10, calls for a review of all infrastructure, continuity, and preparedness and response policies to update and simplify federal approaches.

It said «common sense» investments by state and local governments to address risks ranging from wildfires to hurricanes and cyber attacks would enhance national security, but did not detail what they were or how they would be funded.

«Preparedness is most effectively owned and managed at the state, local, and even individual levels, supported by a competent, accessible, and efficient federal government,» the order said. «When states are empowered to make smart infrastructure choices, taxpayers benefit.»

The order calls for revising critical infrastructure policy to better reflect assessed risks instead of an «all-hazards approach,» the White House said in a fact sheet on the order.

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It creates a «National Risk Register» to identify, describe and measure risk to U.S. national infrastructure and streamlines federal functions to help states work with Washington more easily.

Trump in January ordered a review of FEMA that stopped short of shuttering the country's lead disaster response agency and a White House official said the latest order was not aimed at closing FEMA.

Rob Moore, the director of the flooding solutions team at the Natural Resources Defense Council, accused the Trump administration of systematically weakening U.S. disaster readiness.

«From day one, the Trump administration has been eroding the nation's capacity to plan for, respond to, and recover from disasters,» Moore told Reuters.

«They've