What Are Trump’s Plans for FEMA? Depends Who You Ask.

This story is republished from NOTUS as part of our partnership with the D.C.-based outlet.

As the Trump administration angles to fully “eliminate” the Federal Emergency Management Agency, those who say the president tasked them with reviewing the disaster response agency appear to be on the sidelines—or operating on a completely different track.

“We’re going to eliminate FEMA,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said this week during a televised cabinet meeting. Top officials from DHS and FEMA, including Noem and Cameron Hamilton, FEMA’s acting administrator, reportedly met this week and discussed plans to end FEMA’s core disaster response functions by October 1.

But on Capitol Hill, the lawmakers who say they have been tapped for Trump’s FEMA review council, established via executive order, are still working on a list of recommendations to reform the agency—not eliminate it. 

North Carolina Rep. Chuck Edwards, who said that Trump named him and a number of other Republicans from the state to the review council, told NOTUS that the group is planning on finalizing and presenting a “comprehensive list of recommendations” to the president by next week. Edwards and Rep. Tim Moore, who has also said he’s on the council, say those proposed reforms include changes to address FEMA’s bureaucratic hurdles, but don’t recommend abolishing the agency entirely.

In addition to Edwards and Moore, the chair of the Republican National Committee, Michael Whatley, and Rep. Virginia Foxx have all said they are a part of the FEMA review council. Moore told NOTUS that the four North Carolina officials plan to meet this week to compare notes in preparation for handing over their suggestions. 

Trump’s January 24 executive order called for the creation of a council “of not more than 20 members” to conduct a full-scale review of FEMA with the secretary of homeland security and the secretary of defense serving as co-chairs. Despite lawmakers’ announcements that they’ve been named to the task group, only Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are listed on DHS’s website as official members of the council. 

Neither DHS nor the White House responded to a request for comment on the council.

Meanwhile, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who told NOTUS on Wednesday he has been in contact with Hamilton and the White House Office of Management and Budget, insisted that the Trump administration does not plan to shut down FEMA. 

“The narrative of it just going away is stupid on stilts, and they know that—and they’re not proposing that,” Tillis said. 

Instead, Tillis said the plan is to make the agency “leaner” and “more responsive” by moving a lot of its operation from its headquarters in Washington to on the ground in high-risk, disaster-prone states like his. 

The FEMA Review Council put out a public request for information and comments on Wednesday, asking for people’s experiences with the agency during disasters. The deadline to submit comments on the request is listed as May 15.

So far, the Trump administration has imposed a hiring freeze at FEMA and stalled all of the agency’s grant money payments outside of individual disaster assistance.

Noem has yet to elaborate on their plans for the agency. Trump himself has been highly critical of the agency during visits to western North Carolina and Los Angeles in January. 

“I think, frankly, FEMA’s not good,” Trump said early in his second term, suggesting that his administration may get rid of the agency.

“I say you don’t need FEMA, you need a good state government,” Trump said after touring the wildfires in California in January. “FEMA is a very expensive, in my opinion, mostly failed situation.”

Though he said he’d be the first to say if FEMA needed a thorough review, Tillis still sees the need for the federal agency to exist. 

“There is a role to be played for national mobilization,” Tillis said. “FEMA plays a very critical role and it’s only a role that a national agency can play.”

Tillis joined the full North Carolina delegation last week in signing a letter requesting the administration extend the current agreement for FEMA to reimburse all of the Hurricane Helene cleanup costs, which was due to expire Thursday.

Even Sen. Ted Budd, who told NOTUS on Wednesday that FEMA has “slowed down help” in some circumstances and “it doesn’t matter if we have an agency or don’t,” said the federal government should not reduce its cost share as recovery continues. 

“It’s one of the real things that the federal government could actually do to step up to help people that need it,” Budd said. “It would be an unbearable cost if it’s not granted and I don’t want that to happen to the people of North Carolina.”

Meanwhile in the House, Florida Reps. Jared Moskowitz and Byron Donalds introduced the FEMA Independence Act, which would remove FEMA from DHS and make it a stand-alone, cabinet-level agency. Tillis expressed support for this idea. 

A hearing on operational challenges and opportunities for reform to FEMA, led by the House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations, was scheduled for this week but has now been postponed. 

Rep. Pete Sessions, the subcommittee’s chair, told NOTUS on Tuesday that he plans to reschedule it for as soon as possible and potentially hold it in North Carolina. He would like to see the states’ role in emergency preparedness increased, as well “a FEMA that is much smaller” but still exists.

“We’ve got hundreds of federal employees that come into areas, and they are responsible, and I think they do a good job. I was pleased with what FEMA did,” Sessions said. “But I got a feeling that sometimes the federal government was the decision-maker when it ought to be the states.”

Calen Razor is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.