Last month I offered some thoughts on why I thought that the fate of FEMA had already been decided (Is FEMA a “Dead Man Walking?). Sadly, this has proven to be prophetic. On June 10, the President announced that he would dismantle FEMA after the hurricane season, which ends on November 30th and shift responsibility for response and recovery to the states. Diminished funding for disaster relief would be disbursed directly from the President’s office.
This renders moot any report that might be prepared by the FEMA Review Council. As I mentioned last April (President Names FEMA Review Council Members: Can You Say, “Stacked Deck?”), the Council membership is clearly stacked against FEMA and the Council has not exactly been making much effort. It’s inaugural meeting was just held on May 20. You can view the proceedings at https://www.dhs.gov/medialibrary/assets/video/60813.
Of note were remarks by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, who co-chairs the Council along with the Secretary of Defence, in which she stated:
Let me be clear about the future of this agency. The president wants it to be eliminated as it exists. So, I don’t want you to go into this thinking that we’re going to make a little tweak here, a little delegation of authority over here, that we’re going to maybe cut a few dollars somewhere. No, FEMA should no longer exist as it is. He wants this to be a new agency, something that understands its role in emergency response. That is our direction from the President of the United States. And as we go forward, everything will be viewed from that lens.
It is clear from this and other comments that many members of the Council are continuing to confuse immediate response, which has always been the responsibility of local government, with the disaster relief FEMA provides. This is a bit surprising, considering that many of the Council members have had direct experience with FEMA support in disasters.
It will be interesting to see how the Council will be able to follow these marching orders and recommend dismantling FEMA when much of the input they are receiving suggests just the opposite. You may recall that in March, DHS requested public input on their experiences with FEMA. By the time the comment period closed on May 15, over 11,000 comments were received. Of those, over 99% were supportive of FEMA and its mission and urged that the agency continue, albeit with good-faith reforms. You can find a breakdown of the data at https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/2025-05/FEMA_RFI-Summary_of_Public_Comments-FINAL.pdf.
In addition to this show of public support, on April 14, over 40 community organizations signed a letter to Congress opposing the dismantling of FEMA. National emergency management organizations such as the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) and the National Emergency Managers Association (NEMA) also oppose the dismantling of FEMA and support reform.
Given this level of support, can FEMA be saved? It’s clear that the Republican administration has already decided that FEMA must go, so any attempt to save and reform FEMA will be an uphill battle. However, the executive branch does not have the authority to dismantle an agency; that can only be done by Congress. Pressure on legislators may yield results.
So, what can be done? Here are some ideas:
- Educate elected officials at all levels: IAEM is launching an initiative to make August National Emergency Management Awareness Month. The initiative is essentially a coordinated outreach program intended to reach elected leaders, private sector and nonprofit leaders, and organizational or community decision-makers. The IAEM website contains suggestions for activities and provides resources to help.
- Mobilize your constituency: Emergency managers don’t often think of themselves as having a constituency, but volunteers that support us such as Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), Red Cross shelter teams, and HAM radio groups have already demonstrated a commitment to emergency management. They may well be willing to help with outreach and advocacy and letter writing campaigns.
- Encourage “official positions” – Many jurisdictions have a procedure for taking official positions on proposed legislation. Learn the process and propose having your jurisdiction support the continuation of FEMA.
- Leverage lobbyists – Large jurisdictions often maintain paid lobbyists at the state and federal levels. They support a jurisdiction’s official positions at those levels. If your jurisdiction has a team of lobbyists, learn how to use them.
- Participate in emergency management organizations: Join your state emergency management organization and encourage them to take an official position supporting FEMA. Consider joining IAEM, which has a team that lobbies Congress on our behalf.
- Monitor and support proposed reform legislation: There are several bills in Congress intended to reform FEMA. For example, R.5599 - FEMA Independence Act of 2023 would make FEMA an independent agency and return it to cabinet rank. In May, Representatives Sam Graves (R-MO) and Rick Larsen (D-WA) released a “discussion draft” of the Fixing Emergency Management for Americans (FEMA) Act of 2025. The draft bill proposes making FEMA an independent cabinet agency and would mandate many of the reforms that have been suggested over the years. It is essential that you be aware of bills like these and, as appropriate, support them using the methods described above.
Having spent seven years with FEMA, I well know that the agency is not perfect. But over the years, I have seen it grow and adapt under the guidance of professional emergency managers like James Lee Witt and Craig Fugate. It is light years ahead of where it was when I started and has helped build an emergency management system that is not perfect but still damn effective. Dismantling the agency would negate all the gains we have made over the last seven decades. We can’t let this happen.
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