Inside the failed mission to eliminate FEMA
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is no longer in the Trump administration's crosshairs, according to its former leader.
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Agency → fail → leader
President Trump has made no secret of his disdain for the country's top disaster agency.
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Trump → make → agency
In the first week of his second term, he attacked FEMA, saying, "I think, frankly, FEMA is not good," arguing that the agency should be eliminated.
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agency → attack → FEMA
That rhetoric was echoed by top administration officials, including then-Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, who controlled the agency's budget.
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who → echo → budget
Other federal agencies have since been stripped down or even eliminated, including the Department of Education, Voice of America and USAID.
But despite his own significant efforts to dismantle FEMA, the man who ran the agency at the time says FEMA isn't going anywhere.
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FEMA → strip → time
"I think they're probably in a go-along-to-get-along kind of mode," says David Richardson, who led FEMA as acting administrator for much of 2025 and has since left the federal government.
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who → think → government
"I don't see there being a whole lot of change."
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I → see → change
In recent months, the fear of wholesale agency abolition or mass layoffs has dissipated among FEMA workers, according to multiple current FEMA employees who requested anonymity because they fear retaliation for speaking to a journalist.
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they → dissipate → journalist
But the attempts to kill it have compounded some of FEMA's longstanding problems, like understaffing and delays in getting disaster recovery money to survivors.
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attempts → kill → survivors
"Looking back, I think what we saw was an ill-advised attempt to reduce the size of FEMA without fully understanding all the different functions that the agency has," says Andrew Rumbach, who studies disaster policy at the nonprofit Urban Institute.
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who → look → Institute
A recent report from the Government Accountability Office raised concerns about whether the agency is adequately staffed.
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agency → raise → concerns
Parts of the agency that handle disaster recovery are still understaffed and struggling to get long-delayed money to disaster-stricken states, according to the FEMA employees who spoke to NPR.
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who → handle → NPR
It's only now that "serious reform efforts" are potentially on the horizon for the agency, Rumbach says, and those efforts no longer include eliminating it.
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efforts → say → it
In response to questions from NPR about whether the agency's goals have changed since the president took office, a FEMA spokesperson wrote in an email, "FEMA remains fully operational and focused on its core mission of helping people before, during, and after disasters.
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FEMA → change → disasters
As a matter of policy, we do not comment on accounts in forthcoming books, internal operational deliberations, or personnel matters."
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we → comment → books
The White House declined to comment.
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House → decline → ?
An inside account of the mission to eliminate FEMA
In one of his first interviews since leaving the agency late last year, Richardson sat down with NPR to talk about his time at FEMA and what he saw as his mission while he was there.
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he → eliminate → mission
Richardson, who served as an artillery officer in the U.S. Marines for more than 20 years, arrived in FEMA's top job "reluctantly" and with no experience with disaster management.
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who → serve → management
"FEMA's not my thing," he says.
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he → say → ?
Still, he says he was ready to take on the job because he had previously led efforts to cut the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction office within DHS.
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he → say → DHS
The president's intent was to shut it down or drastically reform it, and my predecessor wasn't moving fast enough in that direction," he says.
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he → shut → direction
"I went there for three things: to get FEMA through hurricane season, either shut it down or drastically reduce its size, and get it ready for rebranding."
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it → go → rebranding
Richardson says he arrived at FEMA in May 2025 with a plan to cut the number of employees at FEMA headquarters from about 6,000 to no more than 2,000 by November 2025.
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he → say → November
"I always think that you can do more with less people, to a degree.
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you → think → degree
At some point it's self-defeating.
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it → defeat → point
But it's definitely self-defeating to have too many people," says Richardson.
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Richardson → defeat → people
Deanne Criswell, who ran FEMA for four years under the Biden administration, says Richardson's description of FEMA as bloated and in need of drastic cuts suggests he does not understand the agency he briefly ran.
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he → run → agency
She agrees that there are personnel changes that could make FEMA more efficient and effective, but "you can't just indiscriminately cut," she says.
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she → agree → ?
"It's only going to hurt the person who has the most need after a disaster."
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who → go → disaster
The Trump administration's approach to cutting FEMA's spending and staffing has also struggled in the face of court challenges.
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approach → cut → challenges
An early attempt by the Trump administration to end a major grant program for disaster preparedness failed after a court challenge, and temporary workers who were terminated earlier this year are suing the agency.
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who → end → agency
This summer, FEMA started rehiring many of those who were terminated.
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who → start → those
"Dave, things have changed"
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things → change → ?
Within months of taking over the agency, Richardson realized that, as he puts it, "the focus was quickly shifting."
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focus → take → it
He says DHS leadership did not approve a plan he shared to downsize FEMA starting at the end of October 2025, one month before the end of the Atlantic hurricane season.
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he → say → season
Meanwhile, the president appointed a council of emergency experts to make recommendations about how to reform the agency, and Richardson says he started to wonder if the administration's goals had changed.
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goals → appoint → agency
In July 2025, he says, he got his answer.
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he → say → answer
As he recounts in a new book, Texas Flood: Power, Money, Politics, History, Bureaucracy and Tragedy, a DHS deputy chief of staff told him, "Dave, things have changed," before explaining that the president's council, not Richardson, would decide the future of FEMA.
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council → recount → FEMA
Indeed, at public meetings of the council that summer, members discussed a variety of recommendations for whether and how to cut FEMA's workforce.
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members → discuss → workforce
At those meetings, emergency managers from powerful states led by Republican governors, including Texas and Florida, discussed the importance of reforming FEMA, but did not publicly advocate for eliminating it.
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managers → lead → it
…and 19 more, not listed.
