From Grist: FEMA’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year. Internal turmoil and delayed aid expose the agency’s fragility under Trump.

“As 2025 draws to a close, the departure of the beleaguered acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, David Richardson, caps a tumultuous year for FEMA. In January, President Donald Trump took office and vowed to abolish the department. Though the administration subsequently slow-walked that proposal, its government-wide staffing cuts have led to a nearly 10 percent reduction in FEMA’s workforce since January. Now it faces a long-awaited report issued by a review council, commissioned by the president and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, just as a new interim FEMA chief prepares to take the reins in December.”

From Yahoo.com: Trump’s New FEMA Chief Is Known as ‘The Terminator’ For Gutting Agencies

“The new head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Karen Evans, is known within the Trump administration as “The Terminator” for her slash-and-burn style of management, CNN reported Monday.

CNN reporter Gabe Cohen described Evans as a “longtime government employee with limited emergency management experience,” who recently served as a senior adviser in charge of cutting waste at the Department of Homeland Security. When she takes the helm at FEMA Dec. 1, Evans will become the third official to head up the agency in 10 months.

At DHS, Evans “quickly became known as the ‘final gatekeeper’ for all funding requests,” Cohen wrote. She was given the nickname, “Terminator,” for her habit of “terminating grants, terminating contracts, terminating people,” according to CNN.”

From Roll Call: FEMA to get new interim director ahead of agency review report. Trump has suggested agency should be dismantled, hasn’t nominated permanent director

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is set to have another interim director start next week, as President Donald Trump’s administration is about to complete a review of a potential agency reorganization.

From NBC News: ‘Screwball,’ ‘crazy,’ ‘strange’: As hurricane season ends, researchers note its surprises.

Hurricane season officially ends on Nov. 30. In some ways, it fit what researchers expect to see as the climate warms, but in others, it was simply odd.

From the WashPost: Noem at odds with Trump-appointed panel over future of FEMA.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/11/19/noem-odds-with-trump-appointed-panel-over-future-fema/

Instead of further shrinking and dismantling FEMA, the FEMA Review Council wants to make it more independent.

“The wrangling over the FEMA review council’s long-awaited report, which has been in the works for nearly 10 months, will help determine the fate of one of Trump’s controversial efforts to reshape the government and its ability to respond to disasters such as floods, fires and hurricanes.?

From the NYTimes: Trump Wanted to Abolish FEMA. His Own Advisers Disagree.

A panel convened by President Trump is said to have rejected the president’s idea that the agency should “go away.”

A task force formed by President Trump to consider changes to the Federal Emergency Management Agency has recommended that it should not be abolished, according to four people briefed on the matter, a position that conflicts with Mr. Trump’s earlier assertion that the agency should “go away.”

It is unclear whether Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, will accept the task force’s suggestions, the people said. FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

The deliberations underscore a growing tension within Mr. Trump’s political coalition over the federal role in responding to hurricanes, floods, fires and other disasters across the country that are growing more destructive as the planet warms.

From the WashPost: FEMA head resigns. Richardson had been hard to reach during Texas floods.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/11/17/fema-administrator-david-richardson-resigns/?itid=hp-top-table-main_p001_f004

David Richardson resigned Monday after a brief tenure leading the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

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Note this comment from CNN on their article on this topic: “FEMA chief steps down as Trump administration prepared to oust him.”

From the Conversation: FEMA buyouts vs. risky real estate: New maps reveal post-flood migration patterns across the US.

“Dangerous flooding has damaged neighborhoods in almost every state in 2025, leaving homes a muddy mess. In several hard-hit areas, it wasn’t the first time homeowners found themselves tearing out wet wallboard and piling waterlogged carpet by the curb.

Wanting to rebuild after flooding is a common response. But for some people, the best way to stay in their community, adapt to the changing climate and recover from disasters is to do what humans have done for millennia: move.

Researchers expect millions of Americans to relocate from properties facing increasing risks of flood, fire and other kinds of disasters in the years ahead.

What people do with those high-risk properties can make their community more resilient or leave it vulnerable to more damage in future storms.”

From Naco: FEMA Bill Staffer Offer Insights into Reform Effort

One perspective on proposed changes:

“Senators are here, they are bored and they are interested in learning something new,” congressional staffer Logan de La Barre-Hays told members of the task force Oct. 28.

de La Barre-Hays (R) and her counterpart Lauren Gros (D) are professional staff members for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which recently passed the Fixing Emergency Management for Americans Act (FEMA Act) on a bipartisan basis, 57-3. They gave NACo task force members a look at the thinking behind some of the bill’s provisions that would appeal to counties.

The FEMA Act proposes making FEMA, currently part of the Department of Homeland Security, an independent agency. It would also transition to a grant program for public assistance, ending a lengthy reimbursement process that left counties fronting millions of dollars for all sorts of recovery costs. It would also reform mitigation programs, create a universal application to simplify paperwork and transform individual assistance policies.

It would reset a system that has formed over the years

There’s nothing in the Stafford Act that prescribes the system as it exists,” de La Barre-Hays said. “It is mostly precedent.”