Cameron Hamilton, acting superintendent of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told House legislators he does not feel the company should be abolished.
This marked a tear from President Donald Trump, who has called for the company’s destroying.
Hamilton responded that FEMA was important and could not be replaced by express work.
” As the top adviser to the president on tragedies and crisis management and to the secretary of homeland security, I do not think it is in the best interest of the American people to reduce the Federal Emergency Management Agency”, Hamilton said. ” Having said that, I am never in a position to make decisions and affect results”.
The responses broke with Trump and his cohort’s ardent antagonism to FEMA. Trump told reporters during a Jan. 24 journey to discover deterioration in North Carolina from Hurricane Helene that he would immediately “begin the process of reforming FEMA or getting rid of FEMA”.
” I think we’re going to suggest that FEMA go aside”, Trump said. ” I’d like to see the state take care of catastrophe.
Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL ) brought up previous comments from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
” When it comes to FEMA, Secretary Noem said that she wants to remove it, and President Trump said that it could,’ Get apart,'” Underwood said”. Let me be clear, eliminating FEMA may cause severe and senseless suffering to the National people.”
Hamilton previewed alterations he would make to the company, including having local and state governments lead crisis response work, using innovative methods to achieve victims, and enhancing FEMA’s inside operational readiness.
” Red tape, bureaucratic inertia, and top-down micro management have turned this disaster recovery into slow, costly, and frustrating processes,” Hamilton said”. It was for this very reason I was hired to refocus this organization in order to better serve the American people under President Trump’s mandate.”
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FEMA became a national problem for Trump during his campaign and in the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election. Trump administration officials in January said that during the Biden administration, FEMA officials directed employees not to approach or help Florida homes with Trump campaign signs on their property.
A federal investigation revealed” no evidence” of wrongdoing following Hurricanes Helene and Milton. However, former FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell terminated one employee after confirming that the worker instructed employees to ignore homes with Trump signs.
