A sign is seen in front of the FEMA Disaster Recovery Center at Weaverville City Hall on March 29, 2025 in Weaverville, North Carolina. (Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — The review board tasked by President Donald Trump with overhauling the Federal Emergency Management Agency was supposed to release its recommendations before Monday but missed the deadline.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesman declined to say when the report would be released, but wrote in a statement that it would “inform this administration’s ongoing efforts to fundamentally restructure FEMA and transform it from its current form into a lean, mission-oriented disaster response force.”
A congressional staffer who is not authorized to speak publicly said the report could be released as early as mid-December. A spokesman for Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a council member, said the review council will vote on completing the report at an upcoming public meeting.
Trump established the 12-member council an implementing regulation He signed back in January and mandated the group release the report within 180 days of its first meeting on May 20.
That should have meant a release last weekend, although it is possible that the staff who wrote the report were on vacation or assigned to other work the 43-day government shutdown.
Hegseth and Noem are co-chairs
The council, co-chaired by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, held three public meetings earlier this year where members discussed possible ways to restructure FEMA but gave no preview of what recommendations they would actually include in the report.
Trump said in June that “the FEMA thing wasn’t a very successful experiment” and that he would like to see states take more responsibility for responding and recovering from natural disasters.
“If there’s a tornado or a hurricane or you have a problem of any kind in a state, that’s what you have governors for,” Trump said. “They’re supposed to fix these problems. And it’s much more local. And they’re going to develop a system. And I think it’s going to be a great system.”
The FEMA Review Council report should include:
- “Assessing the Adequacy of FEMA’s Response to Disasters Over the Past Four Years.”
- “Comparing FEMA Responses to State, Local, and Private Sector Responses,” and
- “Analysis of the key arguments in the public debate for and against FEMA reform, including an assessment of the merits and legality of certain reform proposals,” among several other elements.
FEMA action underway in Congress
Major changes to FEMA would be likely must go through Congress before they could take effect. But a bipartisan group of lawmakers didn’t wait for the review council’s proposals to be implemented.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee voted 57-3 in September send an invoice to the floor This would bring significant changes to FEMA, including turning it into a Cabinet-level agency.
House GOP leaders have yet to vote on the legislation. If passed, it would need Senate approval and Trump’s signature to become law.
