What we know about FEMA elimination plans : NPR

President Trump says the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, should be eliminated, and that states should take on more responsibility for responding to and preparing for extreme weather and other disasters.

That would mean big changes for the millions of Americans who rely on FEMA after hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes, floods and other weather disasters every year. The cost of weather disasters in the U.S. has skyrocketed in the last decade, as climate change causes more intense weather and populations grow in areas that are at high risk for hurricanes, wildfires and other destructive events.

FEMA currently works with states to prepare for disasters, provides on-the-ground help during emergencies and pays out billions of dollars for repairs. Emergency management experts and state disaster response officials say that FEMA plays a crucial role that state governments cannot handle on their own.

Here's what we know about the Trump administration's plans to eliminate FEMA.

When will FEMA be eliminated?
President Trump says the agency could be eliminated as soon as December 2025. Speaking in the Oval Office in June, he said that major changes to FEMA would come after the Atlantic hurricane season ends in November. “We want to wean off of FEMA, and we want to bring it back to the state level,” the president said. He also said that the agency will immediately “give out less money” to states that are recovering from disasters.

The president also appointed a council of cabinet members, governors and emergency management experts, tasked with recommending changes to FEMA. That group, the FEMA Review Council, had its first meeting in May, and is supposed to make recommendations by mid-November. The council is expected to complete its work by May 2026, suggesting that the Trump administration intends to eliminate or restructure FEMA in the period between the 2025 hurricane season and the 2026 hurricane season.

Why is the Trump administration proposing this?
FEMA has a long history of failing to serve those who need help the most after disasters. Under the Biden administration, the agency was taking steps to address those problems. For example, the agency simplified paperwork, expanded on-the-ground help after disasters and made it easier for survivors to get money for diapers, food and other immediate needs.

The Trump administration is taking a different approach. The president has repeatedly suggested that FEMA is hopelessly flawed. At the first meeting of the FEMA Review Council, the council's co-chair, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, said, “The president and I have had many, many discussions about this agency. I want to be very clear. The President wants it eliminated as it currently exists. He wants a new agency.”

Doesn't Congress oversee FEMA?
Yes, and only Congress can fully eliminate FEMA, although the executive branch can act on its own to restructure or reduce the size of the agency.

Congress has its own ideas about how to reform FEMA. A bipartisan bill making its way through Congress would simplify the process for disaster survivors to apply for federal assistance, and remove FEMA from the Department of Homeland Security, giving the agency a direct line to the president.

That bill would also incentivize states to invest more in disaster preparedness, by tying it to federal aid after a disaster. The bill's focus on preparation as a core FEMA responsibility is at odds with the Trump administration's approach to reforming the agency, which has so far included drastically cutting FEMA's disaster preparedness spending.

What specific FEMA changes are being proposed by the Trump administration?
The president has suggested that the federal government should have a much smaller role in responding to disasters. But it's unclear what that means in practice.

At the first meeting of the FEMA Review Council, Secretary Noem said she supports a simplified payment system wherein states receive large disaster recovery block grants from the federal government, rather than tailored reimbursements and grants to cover specific repairs. And President Trump said in June that FEMA will provide less disaster-related assistance to states overall.

Bloomberg news also reported that an internal agency memo from March confirmed that agency leaders were considering changing FEMA's policies to make it harder for states to receive funding after disasters.

Other members of the review council suggested shrinking FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program, which provides the majority of residential flood insurance in the U.S. And FEMA has already canceled billions of dollars of grants for infrastructure upgrades that were supposed to prevent future damage from extreme weather.

Is FEMA ready to respond to disasters right now?
By many measures, FEMA appears less ready to respond to disasters than it was before President Trump took office.

The acting FEMA director, Cameron Hamilton, was abruptly let go in the spring. He was replaced by David Richardson, a DHS official who has no prior emergency management experience.

After Richardson took over, Reuters reported more than a dozen top FEMA employees resigned, including the then-second in command at the agency. In June, the head of the agency's disaster coordination office resigned.

And changes to other parts of the federal government have also affected FEMA. An AmeriCorps program which trained and deployed young people to help after disasters was canceled because of an executive order signed in the early days of Trump's second term. And the Department of Homeland Security, which usually supplies extra staff for FEMA after particularly large disasters, is already stretched thin because of the administration's focus on arresting and deporting people.