Federal Emergency Management Agency leaders had been informed to put together for a attainable gutting of their workforce — by as a lot as half — within the coming months, in accordance to an inner e mail despatched to high FEMA officers final month.
On December 23, dozens of senior FEMA leaders acquired a message notifying them that the company was launching a “workforce capacity planning exercise.” The directions had been blunt: Identify which jobs are completely important to maintain FEMA operating, and which could possibly be minimize.
A spreadsheet hooked up to the message famous the purpose can be to minimize FEMA’s employees by greater than 50% — over 11,500 jobs — by the subsequent fiscal yr, which begins in October. The e mail to company leaders careworn that no last choices about workforce reductions have been made but, and that the exercise is only for planning.
Now, a FEMA spokesperson tells NCS that the White House and Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the company, haven’t authorized such steep cuts, indicating that the 50% discount goal was included in error.
“Any numerical assumptions reflected in that draft were not approved, were not adopted, and do not represent FEMA policy or leadership direction,” the spokesperson stated in an announcement to NCS.
While Trump administration officers haven’t landed on how a lot to slash FEMA’s staffing, a number of FEMA officers who requested not to be named for worry of retribution informed NCS that the administration has been discussing main cuts to the company in 2026.
The confusion over the December e mail highlights the rising uncertainty surrounding the more and more messy overhaul of FEMA, marked by shifting directives from the White House and DHS.
“Imagine trying to plan for a catastrophic situation and being told you may or may not have 50 percent of your staff available,” a longtime FEMA official informed NCS. “What kind of confidence does that inspire at any level?”
Last week, NCS reported that dozens of FEMA staff whose employment contracts had been set to expire in early January had been abruptly told they wouldn’t be renewed and can be jobless inside days. The transfer blindsided many contained in the company, elevating fears about what would possibly occur to 1000’s extra whose contracts finish in 2026.
A DHS spokesperson insisted the early January terminations had been only a “routine staff adjustment,” however the inner e mail reveals that a lot greater modifications had been mentioned.
According to the emailed draft plan, FEMA’s everlasting full-time employees would shrink by 15%, its catastrophe response employees can be slashed by 41%, and its surge workforce — the groups that rush in after main disasters — can be minimize by 85%. Overall, the reductions would minimize employees by greater than half.
If cuts of that magnitude had been applied, there would doubtless be fewer federal boots on the bottom when catastrophe hits. States can be left to decide up the slack, supporting survivors and navigating a posh federal assist system — which the Trump administration has additionally vowed to enhance.
A 50% employees discount throughout the company would mirror suggestions from the particular activity pressure – generally known as the FEMA Review Council – that President Donald Trump arrange in 2025 to assist overhaul FEMA. A draft of that group’s last report, obtained exclusively last month by NCS, additionally referred to as for chopping the agency’s workforce in half and shifting many full-time employees out of Washington, DC, to regional places of work around the nation.
After NCS reported on the draft suggestions, the White House abruptly postponed the duty pressure’s last assembly, which has but to be rescheduled, leaving FEMA’s future unsure. Now, DHS — which beforehand pushed to get rid of FEMA solely — is signaling that neither the division nor the White House is ready to assist such drastic cuts to the company.
All of that is a part of a broader push by the Trump administration to overhaul FEMA, shrink its measurement and shift extra accountability for catastrophe response and restoration to the states. Since President Trump took workplace, his administration has argued that the catastrophe aid company is ineffective, partisan and bloated.
But FEMA leaders warn {that a} dramatic downsizing would go away fewer federal staff prepared to reply when catastrophe strikes. They notice FEMA was already quick greater than 6,000 workers, in accordance to a 2023 Government Accountability Office report, and 1000’s extra left in 2025 due by way of layoffs and buyouts.
Inside FEMA and throughout the nation, officers are sounding the alarm. Many warn that almost all states merely aren’t ready to deal with main disasters on their very own. Billions in federal assist — the lifeblood of state and native emergency administration operations — are already caught in FEMA’s backlog, slowed by new bureaucratic hurdles. With the future of federal funding unsure, some states are tightening their very own budgets and shedding native emergency administration employees who rely on FEMA {dollars}.