The Federal Emergency Management Agency has landed squarely on President Donald Trump’s radar as he weighs either the agency’s abolishment or a significant reform to its operations.
But a bipartisan push from both chambers of Congress would instead seek to install FEMA as a Cabinet-level agency, effectively promoting the agency’s importance while moving it directly under Trump’s purview.
The efforts come after Trump has previously floated “reforming” or “getting rid of FEMA.” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees the agency, also said during a Cabinet meeting that the agency was “going to eliminate FEMA.”
Congressional lawmakers on both sides of the aisle see a different path forward, however.
Reps. Jared Moscowitz (D-FL) and Bryon Donalds (R-FL) are among the lawmakers pushing to carve FEMA out of the Department of Homeland Security, arguing that the public security agency’s size has become a hindrance.
“Homeland has become too big.” Moscowitz told the Washington Examiner. “It’s a giant bureaucracy, and it’s slowing FEMA down, which is some of the reform and criticism, some of the criticism it gets, and some of the reform that’s needed.”
Donalds, who joined Moscowitz in introducing the FEMA Independence Act earlier this year, said it’s “critical” that FEMA is not caught up in the “bureaucratic mess that Homeland Security can be,” and that there be a direct line between the president and governors in organizing disaster responses.
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