Overview

• President Trump has directed a FEMA Review Council to recommend eliminating or significantly restructuring the agency by late 2025 to shift disaster response responsibilities to states.
• Acting FEMA Administrator David Richardson, a Department of Homeland Security official with no prior emergency management experience, replaced Cameron Hamilton earlier this spring.
• More than a dozen senior FEMA employees have resigned since Richardson’s appointment, creating critical leadership gaps with hurricane season approaching.
• Congress is negotiating a bipartisan bill to simplify disaster assistance applications, remove FEMA from the Department of Homeland Security and restore key grant programs.
• Local governments and community groups are ramping up independent preparedness measures—such as mutual aid networks and evacuation mapping—to fill anticipated federal support gaps.