In America: FEMA’s Whirlwind of Reform and Disaster Aid
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been at the forefront of partisan politics since Trump’s 2025 executive order that sought major restructuring of the agency. More recently, Trump has caught flak from Democratic Senators over an uneven disaster response that favors approving disaster response for Republican states over Democratic states.
These critiques came at a confirmation hearing for Trump’s nominee for FEMA, Cameron Hamilton. Hamilton was fired from his role as Acting Administrator of FEMA last year for defending the agency’s role and importance in providing disaster aid. His appearance as Trump’s nominee for FEMA Administrator signals that the administration is shifting from its previous stance of trying to dismantle the agency.
Democratic senators questioned Hamilton about recent data indicating that President Trump had approved 89 percent of disaster aid requests from Republican-led states, compared with 23 percent from Democratic-led states. Questioning Hamilton, Senator Gary Peters of Michigan asked:
“Given this stark data, what other conclusions can one draw other than that the president is using federal disaster assistance to punish states that elect Democrats?”
Hamilton was also questioned about his actions as Acting Administrator of FEMA from January to May 2025. During this period, President Trump denied a request from Democratic Governor Jay Inslee of Washington state. FEMA’s analysis of Governor Inslee’s request indicated that there was $34 million of damage caused by storms and flooding, which cleared the agency’s threshold to qualify for disaster aid.
Senator Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat from Michigan, also described difficulty obtaining disaster aid after President Trump approved some disaster aid for a deadly ice storm but denied a request to repair damaged electrical infrastructure. Trump eventually approved the request to repair this damaged infrastructure.
“It’s just hard to rationalize how many disasters have been approved for aid in Republican states versus Democratic states. Republicans would be screaming bloody murder if the stats were reversed.” – Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin, Democrat.
Continuing in the background of the latest criticisms of FEMA are the agency reforms initiated by bipartisan legislation from Congress, as well as the Trump-created FEMA Review Council. Both the Review Council’s report and the pending H.R. 4669, otherwise known as the FEMA Act, target important structural issues as part of the reform agenda. The Review Council and the FEMA Act diverge upon several questions, such as how independent a reformed FEMA will be of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and how post-disaster funding flows to states.
The FEMA Review Council's report indicated a major focus on devolving greater operational and financial responsibility from FEMA to State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial (SLTT) governments. The FEMA Act addresses devolution by seeking to grant states greater flexibility and expanded implementation authority within existing FEMA programs. Both of these reforms address a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that labeled FEMA as a “High Risk” for waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. Some of GAO’s key findings were:
A disparity among states related to their capacity for disaster preparedness.
The necessity of federal assistance within the current structure of the nation’s disaster system.
High-capacity, disaster-experienced states can still be overwhelmed by major disasters.
Another key point on FEMA's reform agenda is the thresholds and criteria used to determine whether a state is eligible for federal financial assistance. Last year, FEMA issued a memorandum indicating a more selective approach to approving disaster aid by quadrupling the threshold for states to qualify. While this quadrupled threshold was not officially implemented, FEMA disaster aid approvals have become noticeably rarer. The Disaster Dollar Database, built by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, reflects a similar trend of declining disaster aid approvals since President Trump’s second term.
The FEMA Review Council report recommended reevaluating the declaration process for FEMA’s Public Assistance program, with future adjustments on the table. The FEMA Act takes a more discrete approach by requiring FEMA to consider the economic distress of affected communities when evaluating requests for disaster assistance.
A final point of contention is the age-old critique that FEMA’s disaster aid process is too slow and administratively complex. The FEMA Act addresses this issue by targeting the Public Assistance and Individual Assistance programs FEMA administers. Some of the reforms include accelerated funding delivery, streamlined reimbursements, greater flexibility for states, and simplified debris removal and housing assistance processes.
The FEMA Review Council’s reform plan completely replaces the Public Assistance program with a new program called RAPID. RAPID would allow communities to tap into a fund that is automatically released based upon preset criteria related to the type and severity of the disaster. This would allow states to receive federal funding up to 50 percent of estimated recovery needs, with the opportunity to increase this to 75 percent contingent upon performance measures. RAPID would significantly expedite access to critical funding for disaster-stricken communities. However, critics of RAPID question whether FEMA could fairly design the parameters for RAPID that work across a wide variety of disaster types and regions.
Despite the drama and politicization of FEMA in recent months, reform appears to be inevitable for the agency. Both the FEMA Review Council’s report and the FEMA Act appear to be moving the needle in the right direction, yet more work remains to be done before any of these proposed reforms can be materialized. Ultimately, continued congressional action and momentum are required to give reform efforts the space to be worked out and improve future disaster response across the nation.