Top FEMA Official Signals Staff Cuts, More State Involvement

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is eyeing a narrower mission and possible office closures in response to President Donald Trump’s efforts to overhaul disaster management and shrink the overall size of the federal government.

Cameron Hamilton, FEMA’s top political official, outlined the plans Wednesday in an email obtained by Bloomberg Law, providing clear signals of the disaster response agency’s pending transformation ahead of the start of increasingly severe heat and hurricane seasons in the US.

“The plan broadly outlines an approach to reduce the agency’s staffing posture through unification of like-functions and with care that enhances our ability to deliver the mission, examines our geographical footprint, and rebalances federal and state roles in disaster preparedness, response and recovery,” Hamilton wrote to senior FEMA leaders, describing a “Phase 1" plan for government efficiency he provided to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The agency currently has 10 regional offices.

Trump created a council in January to evaluate options for overhauling FEMA and just this week issued an executive order paving the way for greater state and local involvement in emergency management. Scrapping FEMA entirely would require an act of Congress.

Hamilton echoed Trump’s vision in this week’s email, saying he sees the agency’s “core mission” as building capacity among state, local, tribal, and territorial governments and providing critical support in disasters and initial recovery efforts. Hamilton shut down FEMA’s work on climate change initiatives last month.

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The FEMA workforce has already been battered since Trump took office, as the president threatened to eliminate the agency amid complaints about alleged politicization and its response to recent disasters in North Carolina and California.

FEMA terminated more than 200 employees in February in response to Trump’s directive to shrink the federal workforce, though ongoing litigation forced the agency to reinstate many of them. Those terminations followed the firing of a senior executive and other employees for carrying out congressionally approved grants to New York City for migrant housing.

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