{"id":42125,"date":"2025-05-11T12:38:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-11T17:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=42125"},"modified":"2025-05-11T22:02:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T03:02:14","slug":"trumps-firing-of-fema-leader-plunges-disaster-agency-into-uncertainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=42125","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s firing of FEMA leader plunges disaster agency into uncertainty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The dismissal of<\/u><\/a> acting Federal Emergency Management Agency head Cameron Hamilton plunges an already fraught agency into deeper uncertainty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hamilton was fired from the agency Thursday after he said eliminating FEMA would not be in the \u201cbest interest\u201d of the American people<\/u><\/a> \u2014 contradicting pushes to do so from President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former agency officials criticized what they described as the loss of a steady leader at an agency already dealing with uncertainty amid the elimination push.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not what FEMA needed \u2026 20 days from hurricane season \u2026 to lose their administrator and to have more turbulence,\u201d said Pete Gaynor,<\/u><\/a> who led the agency during the first Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others lamented the consequences of disagreeing with the president and his top political leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn emergency management, when you\u2019re trying to solve crises, you need people to be able to speak freely,\u201d said Michael Coen, who was FEMA\u2019s chief of staff during the Obama and Biden administrations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the leadership, whether it\u2019s the secretary\u2019s office or the new acting FEMA administrator, has a proposal or an idea on how to do something, the senior staff that are briefing them should be able to feel free to express their concern on why we shouldn\u2019t do that,\u201d Coen said. \u201cSquashing that free flow of collaboration \u2026 could be detrimental. \u2026 It could lead to bad outcomes where maybe lives could have been saved that weren\u2019t saved because there was not that collaboration and cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt\u2002<\/u><\/a>confirmed Friday that Hamilton\u2019s comments to lawmakers defending FEMA\u2019s existence was the reason for his firing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy understanding is this individual testified saying something that was contrary to what the president believes and the goals of this administration in regards to FEMA policy,\u201d Leavitt said. \u201cAnd so of course we want to make sure that people in every position are advancing the administration\u2019s goals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She deferred further comment to the Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noem earlier in the week appeared on Capitol Hill, where she faced questions from lawmakers about the administration\u2019s plans to drastically overhaul and cut down FEMA\u2019s role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president\u2019s skinny budget proposal calls for $646 million in cuts to FEMA it argues fund \u201cequity\u201d in disaster response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe president has indicated he wants to eliminate FEMA as it exists today, and to have states have more control over their emergency management response,\u201d Noem told lawmakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hamilton\u2019s replacement is David Richardson, who was appointed in January as assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Memos obtained by The Hill that were authored by Richardson indicate the agency is now undergoing \u201cmission analysis\u201d that seeks to find \u201credundancies and inefficiencies\u201d while \u201cdeterring mission creep.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the goals of this analysis are to \u201cdevelop courses of action to achieve the President\u2019s vision for FEMA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Reuters reported Richardson told staffers he would<\/u><\/a> \u201crun right over\u201d anyone who resisted his actions and that he would be the agency\u2019s sole decisionmaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spokespeople for FEMA did not immediately respond to The Hill\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hamilton\u2019s firing and Richardson\u2019s moves come at what\u2019s already a tumultuous time for the agency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond Noem\u2019s March assertion she would \u201celiminate\u201d the agency<\/u><\/a>, reports have indicated as many as 1,800 workers<\/u><\/a> have taken buyout offers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, the White House has set up a review council<\/u><\/a> to assess proposals to reform the agency. Trump in late April appointed roughly a dozen members to that council, including three current or former Republican governors and the Democratic mayor of Tampa, Fla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the agency has considered<\/u><\/a> axing billions of dollars in grants \u2014 including those seeking to prevent terrorism or help communities respond to disasters \u2014 based on immigration policy in the recipient areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

E&E News reported last month<\/u><\/a> that the agency was also halting Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grants \u2014 which seek to help communities adapt ahead of disasters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Wired reported last week that FEMA is also ceasing survivor door-knocks<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reacting to the recent changes, one former Biden-era senior official did not mince words. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear that the Trump administration is a circus and that the secretary does what she wants when she wants it, without the best interest of the American people,\u201d the former FEMA official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The dismissal of acting Federal Emergency Management Agency head Cameron Hamilton plunges an already fraught agency into deeper uncertainty.  Hamilton was fired from the agency Thursday after he said eliminating FEMA would not be in the \u201cbest interest\u201d of the American people \u2014 contradicting pushes to do so from President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Former agency officials […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":42147,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1777,21812,1354,1561,1230],"class_list":["post-42125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-agency","tag-fema","tag-fire","tag-leader","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42125"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42149,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42125\/revisions\/42149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}