by Jennifer Shutt, Arkansas Advocate
May 7, 2025

WASHINGTON — U.S. House lawmakers on Wednesday began debating when the Federal Emergency Management Agency should provide state and local communities with help addressing natural disasters and when aid should be handled by others.

The Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee’s hearing on FEMA’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year came just days after the Trump administration sent its spending proposal to Capitol Hill.

That “skinny” request, however, didn’t include an actual spending level for FEMA, only suggesting that Congress cut $646 million for various non-disaster grant programs, including Targeting Violence and Terrorism Prevention, and the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium.

Chairman Mark Amodei, R-Nevada, urged the FEMA official at the hearing to get the full budget request to the committee sooner rather than later.

“If we don’t have the information, it’s going to be a problem,” he said. “And I’m not threatening. You don’t need threatening. We don’t work that way.”

Amodei also told Cam Hamilton, senior official performing the duties of the administrator at FEMA, that the agency needs to communicate with lawmakers better, especially those on the panel that provides its funding.

“I’m not trying to horn in on your guys’ discretion of running your program,” Amodei said. “But what I am definitely trying to horn in on is, not being faced with a situation where the bell’s already been rung. Now I’ve got to un-ring the bell.”

Amodei was referencing FEMA halting funding for Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC, grants, including for three projects within a few miles of his front porch that he didn’t know existed until recently.

Hamilton said that Trump administration officials “found a lot of inefficiencies with the design of the program itself, which caused us to have serious concern over whether it was the appropriate use of taxpayer funds for many projects that were funded that we believe were very wasteful.”

“But there are also projects that were fully funded that we intend to move forward to completion,” Hamilton added. “We’re unpacking and analyzing that. Every grant recipient, under BRIC, should receive some form of notification” soon from FEMA regional offices. 

No budget numbers

The 90-minute hearing, which would typically have centered around the numbers in FEMA’s budget request, was instead a bit of a referendum on the size and scope of the agency, as well as expectations the Trump administration will seek to significantly reduce its mission.

Hamilton, asked point-blank if FEMA should continue to exist, testified that he personally did “not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency.”

“Having said that, I’m not in a position to make decisions and impact outcomes on whether or not a determination, such as consequential as that should be made,” he said. “That is a conversation that should be had between the president of the United States and this governing body on identifying the exact ways and methodologies, in which, what is prudent for federal investment, and what is not.”

Illinois Democratic Rep. Lauren Underwood, ranking member on the panel, said she would not support efforts to completely shift FEMA responsibilities onto state and local governments.

State emergency management leaders, she said, “are not equipped to handle the roles FEMA currently plays—- marshaling emergency resources for multiple federal agencies, providing flood insurance, conducting damage assessments and distributing billions of dollars in recovery funds.”

“Pushing disaster response and recovery fully back to the states is dangerous and unrealistic,” Underwood said.

Hamilton said the Trump administration is looking at ways to institute “top-down reform” and “overhaul the grant process entirely” as well as other possible recommendations from the FEMA review council.

“FEMA was established to provide focused support in truly catastrophic disasters,” Hamilton said. “Yet at times, we have strayed far from that core mission and evolved into an over-extended federal bureaucracy; attempting to manage every type of emergency, no matter how minor.

“Instead of being a last resort, FEMA is all too often used by states and public officials as a financial backstop for routine issues that, frankly, should be handled locally. This misalignment has fostered a culture of dependency, waste, inefficiency, while also delaying crucial aid to Americans who are in genuine need.”

Disaster relief deficit

One of the more immediate budgetary issues facing FEMA is that its disaster relief fund is slated to run at least a $9 billion deficit before the end of the year, which several lawmakers raised concerns about during the hearing.

The Trump administration, however, does not plan to send Congress a supplemental spending request, asking lawmakers for more money for that account.

The disaster relief fund is able to run deficits, unlike the vast majority of federal programs. When the DRF runs out of funding, FEMA uses something called immediate needs funding to keep providing response and recovery to communities with declared disasters.

Hamilton said, even with the expected use of immediate needs funding again this year, FEMA was prepared to respond to hurricane season and ongoing wildfires.

“There are always challenges that we have to work through,” Hamilton said. “So we are focusing on ways to make us operationally more capable, and also finding ways to be more fiscally practical with our means, so that we don’t buttress us up against those kinds of thresholds nearly as quickly as before.”

Arkansas Advocate is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sonny Albarado for questions: info@arkansasadvocate.com.

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Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Right

The content reflects a center-right perspective by focusing on fiscal conservatism, government efficiency, and skepticism toward expansive federal programs, which align with key Republican priorities. It highlights the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce FEMA’s budget and scope, emphasizing concerns about waste and inefficiency, while also presenting opposition views primarily from Democratic lawmakers advocating for continued federal support. The balanced presentation of both viewpoints and focus on budgetary responsibility suggest a center-right lean rather than an extreme partisan stance.