No it isn't a Federal issue at first. I'm not going to be paying X amount of money off each dollar to ensure someone's home built in an idiotic area is kept safe. Crime and such are one thing. Putting your home below sea level then forcing me to pay good hard earned money to keep you safe there is another. The safety of a city is the city and the states issue. Things are not federal until they cross state lines. Should the breaking of a dam harm more than one state then yes. But that city is sinking and still sinking today and if you move there and buy a house then you are accepting the responsibility that comes with it. People's ignorance to their situation is to blame. The "we've evacuated several times and it's never happened before" people are to blame. Not someone who had nothing to do with it. Those people should have picked a better place to live than under the water line to start with.