From ABC News: Can Trump ‘terminate’ FEMA? Not so fast.
Eliminating the agency would need congressional action.
“On Friday, while touring North Carolina neighborhoods that were ravaged by Hurricane Helene, the president said he was planning an executive order that would “begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA, or maybe getting rid of them.” His order would create a task force that would look for reforms, according to sources.
However, Trump’s authority does not give him the power to terminate the agency unilaterally, according to federal laws. Doing so would require congressional action.”
Recovery Diva 
Much of the public perceives FEMA as a ‘first responder’ type of agency, which it is not. If you are depending on FEMA to clear your roads, remove debris and restore power, then your local and state governments have failed. Acknowledging that President Trump does not have the authority to totally eliminate FEMA, he does have the ability to institute major reforms, which are long overdue in the agency. Hopefully, one of the changes would be making FEMA an independent agency that answers directly to the White House. FEMA has the responsibility to help people when they need it the most and that mission cannot be diminished by other priorities that result from being part of another department, like homeland security. Too many competing interest take resources from FEMA, especially when they need them the most. In my opinion, for whatever reason, FEMA has lost its way and needs to focus once again on its core mission of helping communities deal with disasters along with educating emergency managers. When FEMA fails, people suffer.
I think for most people when you say “FEMA” they think of the money that goes to individuals and jurisdictions and nothing else. As for the National Response Framework, the Comprehensive Preparedness Guide, the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program, the Emergency Support Functions, the National Response Coordination Center, the Mission Assignments, the National Fire Academy, the Emergency Management Institute, the work with NVOAD, etc. etc. they’d be like, huh???
Good information. Thanks for providing it.