Noem at odds with Trump-appointed panel over future of FEMA

Source: Washington Post

November 19, 2025 at 5:05 p.m. EST


A panel appointed by President Donald Trump to review whether to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency has instead concluded in a report that the agency should be more powerful and autonomous. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, however, wants to take FEMA in a different direction.

The wrangling over the FEMA review council's long-awaited report, which has been in the works for nearly 10 months, will help determine the fate of one of Trump's controversial efforts to reshape the government and its ability to respond to disasters, such as floods, fires and hurricanes.

Noem, as the council co-chair, is responsible for finalizing the report and sending it to Trump for review. Her draft, which is not finished, recommends keeping FEMA within DHS and largely removing FEMA from its direct role in disaster relief, instead turning it into more of a grant-making operation, according to five people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private deliberations. The council's earlier draft did not recommend those changes, but rather that FEMA gets elevated to a Cabinet-level office.

Noem's office also wants to reduce the federal government's share of disaster-related costs to 50 percent with states having to fund the other 50 percent with cash, which some council members staunchly opposed, according to a person familiar with the situation. Under current FEMA guidelines, the federal government covers about 75 percent of costs, and in extreme cases, will front nearly 100 percent for a period of time. The council is recommending FEMA keep its current cost share responsibility, which is defined by the Stafford Act.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/11/19/noem-odds-with-trump-appointed-panel-over-future-fema/

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45 and Ice Barbie (and her current "squeeze" - Lewandowski) want to make FEMA into just another extension of ICE to continue the ethic cleansing, forcing states to deal with and pay for their own catastrophic damage, and cherry-picking which red states will maybe get funding (with none at all going to blue states).