The lead sponsor of a bipartisan bill to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency is optimistic that the bill will advance in Congress with White House support, despite President Donald Trump’s stated desire to abolish FEMA.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) spoke about the prospects for his Fixing Emergency Management for Americans Act, known as the “FEMA Act,” during a Punchbowl News event today. The bill passed out of committee in September.

“We’ve got people on both sides bought into this process,” Graves said. “And so I think that puts a lot of pressure on the Senate as well. And once it crosses the floor of the House, it’s going to be very bipartisan as well, but I don’t think we’ll have problems with the Senate.”

The FEMA Act would overhaul FEMA’s disaster assistance processes, with the goal of delivering aid faster to both states and individual survivors. The bill also seeks to streamline FEMA’s mitigation framework and programs.

“This will be the most comprehensive FEMA reform since Hurricane Katrina,” Graves said. “FEMA is broken. The President knows it’s broken, so we’re instituting some real reforms in there to make changes.”

Graves said the reform measures align with Trump’s wish to move more disaster management responsibilities to states.

“We’re going to put the states in charge with the federal government’s assistance,” Graves said. “The more local you can get those recovery efforts, the better off and the more accountable they are.”

The bill would also move FEMA out from under the Department of Homeland Security and make FEMA a cabinet-level agency. Graves pitched that shift as injecting “accountability” back into FEMA.

“It makes [the FEMA administrator] responsible to the President himself, one person, and it makes that accountability stronger,” Graves said.

That change is a key reason why some FEMA employees also support the bill. FEMA staff have objected to staffing cuts and other changes instituted by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. They argue the changes have made FEMA less ready to respond to national disasters.

One key question, however, is whether Trump and the White House will support the proposed changes in the FEMA Act or continue to advance its own reform agenda. Trump earlier this year established a “FEMA Review Council” to evaluate the agency’s functions and responsibilities.

Trump’s executive order establishing the FEMA Review Council set a Nov. 16 deadline for its final report.

Asked whether Trump supports having the FEMA administrator in the cabinet, Graves said, “Yes.”

Meanwhile, House Democrats have been highly critical of changes at FEMA under the Trump administration. In a Nov. 3 letter to David Richardson, the senior official performing the duties of the FEMA Administrator, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) asked for more information about changes at FEMA under the Trump administration.

Garcia and Oversight Democrats have been investigating several issues at FEMA, including waves of staffing departures and alleged reprisal against whistleblowers.

“The purge of the nonpartisan, career civil service by the Trump administration – including through reduction in force efforts, the wasteful deferred resignation program, and illegal firing of probationary employees – is straining FEMA’s workforce and leaving fewer staff available to be deployed to disasters,” Garcia wrote. “The administration’s efforts to cut costs and shrink the agency have also contributed to a wave of additional resignations and retirements, adding to the strain on the workforce and resulting in fewer senior and experienced leaders and significantly harming morale across the agency.”

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