Proposed Restructuring of FEMA Raises Concerns

Disaster Management Disaster Management

Posted by NewAdmin on 2025-03-31 08:58:37 |

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In the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has expressed support for significantly restructuring or potentially abolishing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The proposal suggests eliminating long-term disaster recovery efforts and reallocating FEMA's functions to other departments or agencies. This development has prompted state and local emergency responders to prepare for scenarios where federal disaster assistance may be reduced or absent, emphasizing the need for enhanced state and local preparedness and response capabilities.

State officials were urged Wednesday to prepare for the possible abolition of the Federal Emergency Management Agency following a report by  news that senior Trump officials were taking steps to dissolve or shrink the agency.

The head of an emergency managers’ association told state and local disaster agencies to start planning “to operate in a world without FEMA.”

“Think: Worst of Worst (WOW) scenario,” Carrie Speranza, U.S. president of the International Association of Emergency Managers, wrote on her LinkedIn page. She advised emergency managers to determine what their disaster programs would need from state and local governments “if no federal funding, technical assistance, or staff support, is available beginning April 15.”

“If the federal government is going to back out of all support, my industry needs to be really serious about finding ways to fund themselves,” Speranza said in an interview after she posted her guidance online. Confusion turned to concern Wednesday when it emerged that Noem had met a day earlier with FEMA acting Administrator Cameron Hamilton and Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski at DHS headquarters in Washington. Noem told Hamilton that she wanted to start planning to drastically revise FEMA, possibly by dissolving the agency and shifting its functions to other departments, agencies or the White House.

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