The dismissal of acting Federal Emergency Management Agency head Cameron Hamilton plunges an already fraught agency into deeper uncertainty.
Hamilton was fired from the agency Thursday after he said eliminating FEMA would not be in the “best interest” of the American people — contradicting pushes to do so from President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Former agency officials criticized what they described as the loss of a steady leader at an agency already dealing with uncertainty amid the elimination push.
“It’s not what FEMA needed … 20 days from hurricane season … to lose their administrator and to have more turbulence,” said Pete Gaynor, who led the agency during the first Trump administration.
Others lamented the consequences of disagreeing with the president and his top political leaders.
“In emergency management, when you’re trying to solve crises, you need people to be able to speak freely,” said Michael Coen, who was FEMA’s chief of staff during the Obama and Biden administrations.
“If the leadership, whether it’s the secretary’s office or the new acting FEMA administrator, has a proposal or an idea on how to do something, the senior staff that are briefing them should be able to feel free to express their concern on why we shouldn’t do that,” Coen said. “Squashing that free flow of collaboration … could be detrimental. … It could lead to bad outcomes where maybe lives could have been saved that weren’t saved because there was not that collaboration and cooperation.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Friday that Hamilton’s comments to lawmakers defending FEMA’s existence was the reason for his firing.
“My understanding is this individual testified saying something that was contrary to what the president believes and the goals of this administration in regards to FEMA policy,” Leavitt said. “And so of course we want to make sure that people in every position are advancing the administration’s goals.”
She deferred further comment to the Department of Homeland Security.
Noem earlier in the week appeared on Capitol Hill, where she faced questions from lawmakers about the administration’s plans to drastically overhaul and cut down FEMA’s role.
The president’s skinny budget proposal calls for $646 million in cuts to FEMA it argues fund “equity” in disaster response.
“The president has indicated he wants to eliminate FEMA as it exists today, and to have states have more control over their emergency management response,” Noem told lawmakers.
Hamilton’s replacement is David Richardson, who was appointed in January as assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security’s Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office.
Memos obtained by The Hill that were authored by Richardson indicate the agency is now undergoing “mission analysis” that seeks to find “redundancies and inefficiencies” while “deterring mission creep.”
Among the goals of this analysis are to “develop courses of action to achieve the President’s vision for FEMA.”
Meanwhile, Reuters reported Richardson told staffers he would “run right over” anyone who resisted his actions and that he would be the agency’s sole decisionmaker.
Spokespeople for FEMA did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
Hamilton’s firing and Richardson’s moves come at what’s already a tumultuous time for the agency.
Beyond Noem’s March assertion she would “eliminate” the agency, reports have indicated as many as 1,800 workers have taken buyout offers.
At the same time, the White House has set up a review council to assess proposals to reform the agency. Trump in late April appointed roughly a dozen members to that council, including three current or former Republican governors and the Democratic mayor of Tampa, Fla.
Meanwhile, the agency has considered axing billions of dollars in grants — including those seeking to prevent terrorism or help communities respond to disasters — based on immigration policy in the recipient areas.
E&E News reported last month that the agency was also halting Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grants — which seek to help communities adapt ahead of disasters.
And Wired reported last week that FEMA is also ceasing survivor door-knocks.
Reacting to the recent changes, one former Biden-era senior official did not mince words.
“It’s clear that the Trump administration is a circus and that the secretary does what she wants when she wants it, without the best interest of the American people,” the former FEMA official said.
