On the Media American Emergency: The Movement to Kill FEMA
33 snips
May 1, 2026 
Leo Bosner, a retired FEMA official and flood insurance specialist, and Garrett Graff, a journalist and author on continuity-of-government, unpack FEMA’s strange Cold War origins and secret continuity plans. They discuss how secrecy birthed FEMA-camp conspiracies. They also trace reforms that professionalized disaster response and recent controversies over funding for detention facilities.
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FEMA Was Born From Cold War Doomsday Planning
- FEMA's origin combined Cold War continuity planning with disaster relief, creating a dual mission that confused its purpose.
- Mount Weather exemplifies this: an underground city built for government survival during nuclear war that later became a FEMA site.
Staff Confusion Marked FEMA's Early Years
- Early FEMA staff struggled with identity as employees were rebranded as emergency management specialists after agency consolidation.
- Leo Bosner described bewilderment receiving new FEMA IDs and unclear job titles when offices merged into FEMA.
Secret Continuity Programs Ate FEMA Resources
- Large portions of FEMA's staff and budget were hidden in classified programs focused on continuity of government.
- Project 908 pooled billions and had the FBI scouting civilian sites as potential post-attack refugee camps without telling businesses.
