The final Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Review Council meeting was scheduled for yesterday, December 11, but was unexpectedly cancelled without prior notification. The FEMA Review Council, which had been meeting for months to evaluate possible agency reforms and was set to make its final report public at the Thursday meeting, was supposed to release and vote on the final draft of their report recommending what some sources are reporting to be drastic and harmful changes for the agency’s future.
The FEMA Review Council was established via Executive Order by the Trump administration earlier this year with the goal of issuing a final report outlining recommendations for the agency’s future at the end of November. Last month, The Washington Post reported that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s office was heavily editing and condensing the committee’s 160-page report of findings - leading to doubts that the final product accurately reflects the public input provided to the Council.
On December 10, CNN obtained a leaked copy of a draft of the final report say that it recommends gutting FEMA’s workforce by 50%, increasing the level of damage it takes for a place to qualify for any kind of disaster assistance at all, and keeping FEMA under DHS- all ideas that would be incredibly damaging to disaster survivors and set our disaster recovery system back decades.
To advocate for common sense, bipartisan reforms that will ensure that all disaster survivors receive the assistance they need to fully recover, NLIHC encourages organizations to sign onto our FEMA Act of 2025 support letter by December 24, 2025. The FEMA Act is a comprehensive, bipartisan bill that envisions a future for the agency in which FEMA could better ensure that disaster survivors – whether they are renters, homeowners, or are experiencing homelessness – can access the assistance they need to fully recover; all while encouraging states to take greater steps to address their disaster risk.
NLIHC and the NLIHC-led Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition will continue to track this development and will share additional information as it becomes available.