The future of the Federal Emergency Management Agency remains up for debate after the Trump administration recently delayed a long-anticipated report from the FEMA Review Council.

Former leaders at FEMA say they expected the council’s report to bring much-needed clarity to the administration’s plan for an agency that has already undergone dramatic changes over the last 11 months.

“I was really eager to see what they were going to put forward, because I think that they were really trying to make a difference,” Deanne Criswell, who served as FEMA administrator during the Biden administration, said during a Monday webinar hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“I think where it leaves us now, at the end of the year, is still just wondering what is going to be next. What is going to be the future of FEMA as we go forward?” Criswell said. “It just leaves so much uncertainty, as states and locals are trying to plan for their next year, as well as the federal government trying to plan for their budget.”

Pete Gaynor, who served as FEMA administrator during the first Trump administration, said he expected the council’s report to serve as a “north star” for the agency.

“It was going to offer clarity,” Gaynor said. “It was going to offer predictability to FEMA and to the entire emergency management enterprise that we were going to go somewhere transformative. And it hasn’t happened, at least not yet. And I guess the biggest takeaway is, without the report, what happens next?”

The council was set to unveil the report and vote on it at a meeting Friday afternoon. But the meeting was abruptly cancelled late that morning, reportedly over White House concerns about a leaked draft of the report.

The document was first obtained by CNN. The news outlet reported that the draft recommendations include sweeping reforms to FEMA, including cutting the agency’s workforce by 50% and shifting some non-disaster management responsibilities to other entities.

FEMA changes spark pushback

The last-minute delay comes after a year of change for FEMA.

President Donald Trump established the council earlier this year to recommend FEMA reforms. He has repeatedly alluded to eliminating the agency outright. As recently as June, he said the administration wanted to “wean off of FEMA, and we want to bring it back to the state level.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who serves as co-chairwoman of the council, has echoed Trump’s calls about eliminating FEMA. But in more recent appearances and council meetings, Noem has turned to calling for the agency to be “eliminated as it exists today.”

FEMA has also had three separate acting leaders over the last 11 months. Thousands of FEMA staff have departed the agency since the spring, driven by changes under Noem that have drawn criticism from some remaining employees.

Gaynor said FEMA also needs “a professional, well-respected, well-experienced emergency manager” leading the agency.

“The FEMA administrator job is incredibly hard, incredibly satisfying, but if you don’t have the right person in there, I’m not sure how you actually achieve reform, and I’m not really sure how you get your employees to follow you in that reform,” he said. “Because you’re going to need every single person that’s works for that agency, and every single person that is connected to the emergency management enterprise, to follow along.”

An independent FEMA?

Meanwhile, some House lawmakers are advancing the bipartisan Fixing Emergency Management for Americans Act. The bill would make FEMA an independent agency, moving it out from under the Department of Homeland Security. It also aims to streamline and overhaul FEMA’s disaster management programs and processes to more quickly deliver aid to communities and individuals.

The draft FEMA Review Council report obtained by CNN, meanwhile, would keep the agency under the umbrella of DHS.

Criswell endorsed the idea of making FEMA an independent agency.

“If the FEMA administrator was elevated to a cabinet level, pulled out of DHS, they would have greater ability to coordinate those other secretaries, those other cabinet-level entities to accomplish their mission and long-term recovery,” she said.

Gaynor opposes it, calling such a move a “gigantic distraction.”

“There’s many more things that are important to reforming FEMA, and where FEMA sits exactly, I’m not sure that really counts as true reform,” Gaynor said.

Danielle Aymond, a disaster recovery and FEMA funding specialist at the law firm Baker Donelson, pointed out that the Trump administration likely has a desire to “move fast” with FEMA reform. She said it will be crucial for the White House and Congress work together to iron out any differences with their proposals.

“The most critical point is, in the next few weeks, aligning this FEMA Review Council draft with the current pending legislation in Congress, and I think we can hit the accelerator and before [next] hurricane season, have a totally reformed system through that vehicle,” Aymond said.

The post Former FEMA leaders call for ‘clarity’ amid delayed council report first appeared on Federal News Network.