Cuts to FEMA sow fears, confusion
Clock ticking as Atlantic hurricane season nears
By: Dinahs Voyles Pulver
USA Today
..... Federal emergency Management Agency employees are trained to respond to disaster but have struggled this spring [2025] with the situation unfolding at their own agency.
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While they've been deployed to wildfires in Los Angeles, flooding along the Kentucky River and throughout the Southeast in response to Hurricane Helene, FEMA workers have watched a rolling turmoil of staff cuts, slashed budgets and threats to dismantle their agency. They're fielding difficult questions from friends, co-workers and disaster victims about what the future holds.
..... "It's caused a lot of confusion," said Michael Coen, a FEMA veteran of more than 15 years who left his position as chief of staff on i Inauguration Day. [01/20/2025]
..... At least 2,000 of the agency's roughly 6,100 full-time employees have either left or pal to leave under the waves of terminations and voluntary retirements orders by Elon Musk's Department of Governmental Efficiency, Coen told USA Today. That doesn't include a reduction in force expected to take place in the federal government in the coming weeks.
..... And by executive order on January 24, 2[205] President Donald Trump launched a "full-scale review" of FEMA and cut funds for some of the agency's grant programs, outraging officials in states where those funds already had been commuted. The controversy taps into a long-running debate over the role of states and the federal government in disaster response.
..... Federal responses to Hellen and other disasters "demonstrate the need to drastically improve" the agency's efficiency, priorities and competence, Trump's order stated.
..... Appointees to the view council, announced April 28, [2025] will be tasked with taking a sweeping look at everything form disaster aid during periods before an after FEMA; the traditions role of states and citizens in securing life, liberty and property; and ways FEMA could serve as a support agency if the states were in control of disaster relief.
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Members include Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Florida's emergency management chief Kevin Guthrie, and Tampa, Florida Mayor Jane Castor. Noem already has said she wants to eliminate FEMA.
..... On Truth social, Trump posted: "I know that the new Members will work hard to fix a terribly broken System, and return power to State Emergency Managers."
..... Shana Udvardy, senior climate resilience policy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, is among many who agree there's room for reform at the federal agency. Genuine reforms, she said, "should be informed by science, expertise and the experiences of disaster survivors.
..... Meanwhile, the clock is ticking with the start of the Atlantic hurricane season roughly a month away.
..... It's hard to find a public official who doesn't a thin the way the nation responds to disasters could be improved, but the 30% cut in the agency's full-time staff raises concerns about whether FEMA will be able to respond to major disasters.
.... Jay Inslee, whose team as the Democratic governor of Washington state ended in January, [2025] is among those gravely concerned about FEMA's ability to respond.
..... Gutting FEMA is just going to make more and more families to be living under blue tarps for years, and not to have the financial assistance they deserve when the pay their taxes," Inslee said. "I'm outraged on their behalf."
..... The agency's mission has evolved and it walks a tightrope at times between trying to battle fraud while not attaching so many rules that money can't get where it needs to.
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State and local officials often refer to the recovery phase as the "disaster after the disaster." a government Accountability office report in 2022 made numerous suggestions for addressing "red-tape" in disaster recovery.
.... Major disaster requires federal resources, and sate and local governess cannot cope on their own, Udvardy said.
..... "With the summer danger season of extreme weather, including climate-fueled disasters, getting underway soon, these attacks on FEMA could not come at a worse time," Udvardy said. "Congress must push back assertively on these egregious plans in a bipartisan way - disaster do not discriminate based on politics."
..... FEMA's remaining full-time employees, even those who work at headquarters and don't typically deploy, have been warned to be ready for deployment to disasters this summer. [2025]
..... The agency has been short-staffed for years, federal documents show. The staff flexes up and down as the need arises, with roughly 12,000 employees who respond as reservists or local temporary hires.
..... Among the cuts this year [2025] to the permanent employees were 200 probationary staff, dismissed because they had been either recently hired or recently promoted. Coen said 800 others took the "fork in the road' plan that placed employees on administrative leave with pay until the end of the summer [2025] when they'd lose their jobs.
..... "A lot of people with the agency were just exhausted" after last year, [2024] Coen said. In the aftermath of Hurricane Helen, some FEMA officials found their personal information had been made public Online, and some were threatened.
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The inauguration [01/20/2025] opened a new chapter. Trump had been biracial of FEMA during the campaign, and his first official trip was to visit the Helene disaster zone in western North Carolina, where he said the administration was "very disappointed" in FEMA.
..... After information was leaked from one early meeting with the new FEMA officials, at least a dozen staff members were asked to submit to lie detector tests, Coen said.
..... Employees are afraid to talk, even to former colleagues, Coen said.
..... FEMA responds to every major natural disaster, assessing damage and providing assistance under reestablished guidelines and state agreements.
..... In Washington state, "FEMA had been a tremendous, absolutely essential partner," Inslee said.
..... In recent rays, FEMA has sen an enormous increase in the number of disasters that require a response.