The Trump administration is abruptly chopping dozens of staff who’re on the forefront of disaster response and restoration on the Federal Emergency Management Agency this week, based on inside emails obtained by NCS and sources aware of the plan.
On New Year’s Eve, some workers obtained emails saying their positions “would not be renewed” and “therefore, your services will no longer be needed” after their contracts expire within the first days of January.
The cuts goal FEMA’s Cadre of On-Call Response and Recovery (CORE) groups, which type the spine of the company’s operations throughout and after a disaster, and may very well be just the start of a bigger effort by Secretary Kristi Noem and the Department of Homeland Security to shrink FEMA, doubtlessly axing 1000’s of employees within the coming months who deploy throughout hurricanes, wildfires and different nationwide emergencies.
According to 2 sources with information of the terminations, which out of the blue ousted roughly 50 CORE staff, the choice got here from FEMA’s new performing chief Karen Evans — who was elevated to the role by DHS leadership after the embattled earlier company head resigned.
The notices surprised workers, who realized they’d be let go inside days. “Beyond cruel to be treated in such a way,” one of many employees stated.
FEMA’s CORE workers are among the many first federal boots on the bottom throughout a disaster, working shoulder-to-shoulder with native officers, serving to survivors and managing the essential help and grants that gas restoration and rebuilding.
“FEMA can’t do disaster response and recovery without CORE employees,” a former senior FEMA official informed NCS. “The regional offices are almost entirely CORE staff, so the first FEMA people who are usually onsite won’t be there. The impact is states are on their own.”
So far, DHS, which oversees FEMA, hasn’t given the company a lot steering about what comes subsequent, leaving workers anxious about extra cuts.
A DHS spokesperson denied that the division has applied any new coverage for these employees and didn’t deal with questions on this week’s abrupt terminations or the division’s broader plans to downsize the company.
“The CORE program consists of term-limited positions that are designed to fluctuate based on disaster activity, operational need, and available funding,” the spokesperson stated in an announcement to NCS. “CORE appointments have always been subject to end-of-term decisions consistent with that structure and there has been no change to policy.”
Several sources informed NCS that DHS has been contemplating letting extra contracts expire as a part of a push to downsize the company, although officers have wavered on how deep the cuts will go.
CORE workers make up about 40% of FEMA’s workforce — over 8,000 folks — working full-time hours on momentary contracts. Several thousand of those employees will see their contracts finish in 2026.
Traditionally, CORE employees have served on two-to-four-year contracts that have been virtually all the time renewed. In 2025, DHS restricted FEMA to renewing these contracts for simply 180 days at a time whereas they thought of a long-term plan to shrink the company.
As of January 1, DHS revoked FEMA’s authority to resume these workers with out approval from Homeland Security officers, based on inside paperwork obtained by NCS.
Now, DHS is instructing FEMA to let at the least a few of these contracts lapse, forcing workers to depart as their phrases expire.
Under President Donald Trump’s second administration, DHS has argued for the previous 12 months that FEMA is bloated, regardless of a 2023 Government Accountability Office report that discovered the company was going through a staffing shortfall of greater than 6,000 workers—about 35% under its goal degree. Thousands of FEMA’s staff of about 25,000 left in 2025 on account of layoffs and buyouts, deepening the scarcity.
The newest cuts to CORE are a part of a broader Trump administration effort to overtake FEMA, shrink its footprint and shift extra accountability for disaster response to the states. A activity power appointed by the administration – recognized as the FEMA Review Council – is predicted to quickly launch sweeping suggestions, together with a proposal to cut the agency’s workforce in half.
But after NCS solely obtained a draft of the suggestions this month, the White House abruptly postponed the duty power’s remaining assembly, leaving FEMA’s future in limbo.
Inside FEMA and throughout the nation, officers are sounding the alarm in regards to the administration’s plan, warning that almost all states merely aren’t outfitted to deal with main disasters on their very own.
Billions in federal funding for communities nationwide stay caught in FEMA’s backlog, largely due to bureaucratic hurdles imposed by Trump’s DHS. With the way forward for federal funding up within the air, some states are already tightening their very own budgets and shedding native emergency administration staff whose departments depend on cash from FEMA to brace for the influence.
The FEMA Review Council is predicted to suggest transferring some company staff out of Washington, DC, and into different components of the nation — a transfer that might assist fill some gaps if the CORE workforce is slashed.
Still, it seemingly means fewer federal boots on the bottom when disaster strikes, leaving states with extra accountability for supporting survivors and navigating entry to the federal assets which are nonetheless out there — a bureaucratic course of the Trump administration has vowed to enhance.