Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will be eliminated, echoing a pledge from President Trump to close the disaster relief agency. Noem shared the plans during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Monday, Breitbart reported.
FEMA has faced questions about competence, political bias, and the use of tax resources to help illegal aliens. The agency fired three more employees this month who were tied to a previously publicized incident of discrimination against pro-Trump hurricane victims in Florida.
President Trump has criticized FEMA repeatedly as ineffective and wasteful, and he has called on individual states to play a larger role in responding to disasters.
“FEMA has been a very big disappointment. They cost a tremendous amount of money. It's very bureaucratic, and it's very slow. Other than that, we're very happy with them,” Trump said in North Carolina in January.
Echoing Trump, Noem has endorsed ending FEMA "the way it exists today."
The DHS last month reclaimed $80 million in FEMA money that was given to New York City to house immigrants during Biden's border crisis.
Noem said FEMA was sending money to a high-end hotel used by the Tren De Aragua gang, which has become a target of Trump's immigration crackdown. Four FEMA employees were also fired for circumventing leadership to make the payments.
I have clawed back the full payment that FEMA deep state activists unilaterally gave to NYC migrant hotels.
FEMA was funding the Roosevelt Hotel that serves as a Tren de Aragua base of operations and was used to house Laken Riley’s killer.
Mark my words: there will not be a…
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) February 12, 2025
FEMA cannot be abolished without an act of Congress, but Trump is moving ahead with overhauling the agency by executive order.
Both Trump and Noem have said the federal government should continue to provide resources, but that FEMA should have a smaller role in responding to disasters.
During an interview in February, Noem said FEMA is "picking and choosing winners."
“I would say, yes, get rid of FEMA the way it exists today," Noem said in February. "We still need the resources and the funds and the finances to go to people that have these types of disasters, like Hurricane Helene and the fires in California but you need to let the local officials make the decisions on how that is deployed, so it can be deployed much quicker. And we don’t need this bureaucracy that’s picking and choosing winners," Noem said.
In the meantime, Trump is scrutinizing FEMA's activities, ordering a review of all disaster aid programs that "indirectly or incidentally aid illegal aliens."
