President Trump’s Federal Emergency Management Agency Review Council recently approved its final report on restructuring federal disaster response and recovery programs under the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
The report’s release ended more than a year of deliberations and will now be sent to President Trump for his consideration.
The public will also have until June 8 to submit comments. APPA has formed a member working group to draft comments.
The report’s proposed actions are broken into ten high-level recommendations. According to the Council, half of these recommendations would require further congressional action to implement.
The Council says that other recommendations could be accomplished through regulations, which would also be subject to notice and comment. Page 15 of the report provides a summary of the actions needed to implement the report’s recommendations.
Congress has already begun work to reform FEMA. This includes, H.R. 4669, the Fixing Emergency Management for Americans Act of 2025 (FEMA Act), which passed the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee by a vote of 57 to 3 last September.
There has also been interest in moving comparable legislation in the Senate, but potential sponsors have been wary of proceeding without better guidance from the White House as to the President’s preferences, APPA reported.
