FEMA headquarters in D.C. Photo: Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
House lawmakers have revamped a bipartisan push to make FEMA a Cabinet agency even as the Trump administration talks about eliminating it entirely.
Why it matters: The FEMA Independence Act would mark a major change to how the agency operates, but it shows how the administration's proposals for FEMA could fare poorly on Capitol Hill.
Driving the news: The legislation, reintroduced Monday by Reps. Jared Moskowitz and Byron Donalds, would break FEMA out of the Department of Homeland Security.
- It would instead become a Cabinet-level agency — as it was before the creation of DHS after 9/11 — with Senate-confirmed leadership and its own inspector general.
- That's an idea experts have long advocated because it could consolidate the government's patchwork focus on disaster response.
- It was introduced the same day that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said during a Cabinet meeting that she would move to "eliminate" FEMA.
What they're saying: "FEMA has become overly bureaucratic, overly politicized, overly inefficient, and substantial change is needed to best serve the American people," Donalds said in a statement.
- "When disaster strikes, quick and effective action must be the standard — not the exception."
The big picture: The U.S. disaster response system is fundamentally broken, and climate change is only worsening the problems.
- More than a dozen agencies have some hand in preparing beforehand and providing assistance in the days, weeks and years after a major event.
- "FEMA is meant to be an emergency management agency, but right now, it functions more as a grant agency with emergency management capabilities," Moskowitz said in a statement.
