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Federal Emergency Management Agency

United States disaster response agency

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While on-the-ground support of disaster recovery efforts is a major part of FEMA's charter, the agency also provides state and local governments with experts in specialized fields, funding for rebuilding efforts, and relief funds for infrastructure (re)development. It also helps individuals access low-interest disaster recovery loans, in conjunction with the Small Business Administration. In addition to this, FEMA provides funds for response personnel preparedness training throughout the United States and funds for non-federal entities to provide housing and services for migrants released from Department of Homeland Security custody.

History

Prior to 1930s

A series of devastating fires struck the port city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, early in the 19th century. The 7th U.S. Congress passed a measure in 1803 that provided relief for Portsmouth merchants by extending the time they had for remitting tariffs on imported goods. This is widely considered the first piece of legislation passed by the federal government that provided relief after a disaster.

Between 1803 and 1930, ad hoc legislation was passed more than 100 times for relief or compensation after a disaster. Examples include the waiving of duties and tariffs to the merchants of New York City after the great fire of New York in 1835. Similarly, after the collapse of the John T. Ford Theater in June 1893, the 54th Congress passed legislation compensating those who were injured.

Piecemeal approach (1930s–1960s)

After the start of the Great Depression in 1929, President Herbert Hoover had commissioned the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) in 1932. The purpose of the RFC was to lend money to banks and institutions to stimulate economic activity. The RFC was also responsible for dispensing federal dollars in the wake of a disaster. The RFC can be considered the first organized federal disaster response agency.

The Bureau of Public Roads was given authority in 1934 to finance the reconstruction of highways and roads after disasters. The Flood Control Act of 1944 also gave the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authority over flood control and irrigation projects and it thenceforth played a major role in aiding recovery and reconstruction after flooding disasters.

Department of Housing and Urban Development (1973–1979)

Federal disaster relief and recovery was brought under the umbrella of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 1973 by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1973. At this time, the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration was created as an organizational unit within HUD, and it was this agency that would oversee disasters until its incorporation into FEMA in 1978.

Prior to implementation of Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 by E.O. 12127 and E.O. 12148, many government agencies were still involved in disaster relief; in some cases, more than 100 separate agencies might be jockeying for control and jurisdiction of a disaster.

Over the years, Congress increasingly extended the range of covered categories for assistance, and several presidential executive orders did the same. By enacting these various forms of legislative direction, Congress established a category for annual budgetary amounts of assistance to victims of various types of hazards or disasters, it specified the qualifications, and then it established or delegated the responsibilities to various federal and non-federal agencies.

In time, this expanded array of agencies themselves underwent reorganization. One of the first such federal agencies was the Federal Civil Defense Administration, which operated as part of the Executive Office of the President (EOP). Functions to administer disaster relief were then given to the President himself, who delegated these to the federal Housing and Home Finance Administration. Subsequently, a new Office of Defense Mobilization was created. Then, the new Office of Defense and Civilian Mobilization, also managed by the EOP, and after that, the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization, which renamed the former agency. Then, an Office of Civil Defense, under the Department of Defense (DoD); the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW); the Department of Agriculture; the Office of Emergency Planning (OEmP); the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency (replacing the OCD in the DoD); the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the General Services Administration (GSA) (upon termination of the OEmP).

These actions demonstrated that, during those years, responsibilities for the nation's disaster preparedness were complex and involved multifarious agencies; structures were determined by disparate legislative actions, motivated by policy and budgetary earmarking, and not by a single, unifying, comprehensive strategy to meet the nation's need for coherent disaster preparedness and response into the future. Then, in 1978 an effort was made to consolidate these functions, mandates, agencies and funding streams: FEMA was created to house civil defense and disaster preparedness under one roof. This was a very controversial decision.

FEMA as an independent agency (1979–2003)

FEMA was established under the 1978 Reorganization Plan No. 3 and was activated by President Jimmy Carter in an Executive Order on April 1, 1979.

In July, Carter signed Executive Order 12148 shifting disaster relief efforts to the new federal-level agency. FEMA absorbed the Federal Insurance Administration, the National Fire Prevention and Control Administration, the National Weather Service Community Preparedness Program, the Federal Preparedness Agency of the General Services Administration and the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration activities from HUD. FEMA was also given the responsibility for overseeing the nation's Civil Defense, a function which had previously been performed by the Department of Defense's Defense Civil Preparedness Agency.

One of the disasters FEMA responded to was the dumping of toxic waste into Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York, in the late 1970s. FEMA also responded to the Three Mile Island nuclear accident where the nuclear-generating station suffered a partial core meltdown. These disasters, while showing the agency could function properly, also uncovered some inefficiencies.

In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed James Lee Witt as FEMA Director. In 1996, the agency was elevated to cabinet rank; this was not continued by President George W. Bush. Witt initiated reforms that would help to streamline the disaster recovery and mitigation process. The end of the Cold War also allowed the agency's resources to be turned away from civil defense to natural disaster preparedness.

After FEMA's creation through reorganization and executive orders, Congress continued to expand FEMA's authority by assigning responsibilities to it. Those responsibilities include dam safety under the National Dam Safety Program Act; disaster assistance under the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act; earthquake hazards reduction under the Earthquake Hazards Reduction Act of 1977 and further expanded by Executive Order 12699, regarding safety requirements for federal buildings and Executive Order 12941, concerning the need for cost estimates to seismically retrofit federal buildings; emergency food and shelter under the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987; hazardous materials, under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.

In addition, FEMA received authority for counterterrorism through the Nunn-Lugar-Domenici amendment under the Weapons of Mass Destruction Act of 1996, which was a response to the recognized vulnerabilities of the U.S. after the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995.

Congress funded FEMA through a combination of regular appropriations and emergency funding in response to events.

FEMA under Department of Homeland Security (2003–present)

Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, Congress passed the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to better coordinate among the different federal agencies that deal with law enforcement, disaster preparedness and recovery, border protection and civil defense. FEMA was absorbed into DHS effective March 1, 2003. As a result, FEMA became part of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security, employing more than 2,600 full-time employees. It became Federal Emergency Management Agency again on March 31, 2007, but remained in DHS.

President Bush appointed Michael D. Brown as FEMA's director in January 2003. Brown warned in September 2003 that FEMA's absorption into DHS would make a mockery of FEMA's new motto, "A Nation Prepared", and would "fundamentally sever FEMA from its core functions", "shatter agency morale" and "break longstanding, effective and tested relationships with states and first responder stakeholders". The inevitable result of the reorganization of 2003, warned Brown, would be "an ineffective and uncoordinated response" to a terrorist attack or a natural disaster.

Hurricane Katrina in 2005 demonstrated that the vision of further unification of functions and another reorganization could not address the problems FEMA had previously faced. The "Final Report of the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina", released February 15, 2006, by the U.S. Government Printing Office, revealed that federal funding to states for "all hazards" disaster preparedness needs was not awarded unless the local agencies made the purposes for the funding a "just terrorism" function. Emergency management professionals testified that funds for preparedness for natural hazards were given less priority than preparations for counter-terrorism measures. Testimony also expressed the opinion that the mission to mitigate vulnerability and prepare for natural hazard disasters before they occurred had been separated from disaster preparedness functions, making the nation more vulnerable to known hazards, like hurricanes.

After allegations of mismanagement during Hurricane Katrina, the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) was transferred from the Department of Homeland Security to the Department of Health and Human Services by the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, signed by President George W. Bush on December 18, 2006. In the same year, congress passed the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006, which made FEMA a more independent agency within DHS, and better define its primary mission. The act also added a Surge Capacity Force, which allows the Department of Homeland Security to supplement FEMA employees with additional personnel from various federal departments in the event the agency is overwhelmed. The Force has been activated for Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Maria, and the 2017 California wildfires.

In fall 2008, FEMA took over coordination of the Ready Campaign, the national public service advertising campaign in collaboration with the Ad Council, to educate and empower Americans to prepare for and respond to emergencies including natural and man-made disasters. The Ready Campaign (and its Spanish-language version, Listo) asks individuals to do three things: build an emergency supply kit, make a family emergency plan, and be informed about the different types of emergencies that can occur and how to respond. The campaign messages have been promoted through television, radio, print, outdoor and web PSAs, as well as brochures, toll-free phone lines and English- and Spanish-language websites.

In 2013, as a response to FEMA's response to Hurricane Sandy, congress passed the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act of 2013, which amongst other things allowed federally recognized tribes to directly request a presidential declaration of emergency.

The Stafford Act was amended by the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act (PETS Act) in 2006, and the Disaster Recovery Reform Act (DRRA) in 2018. DRRA made efforts to focus FEMA effort on improving resiliency, preparedness, and mitigating vulnerabilities for large disasters.

FEMA was put in charge of procuring medical supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a tweet posted on April 12, 2022, by Deanne Criswell, the FEMA flag, used between 1981 and 2003, was reintroduced.

FEMA under second Trump Administration (2025)

Historically, FEMA has operated in a nonpartisan manner, responding similarly to disaster funding requests from states, regardless of whether they are controlled by the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. However, under the second Donald Trump administration, FEMA only approved 23 percent of disaster funding requests from states with a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators, whereas it approved 89 percent of requests from Republican states. President Trump also takes a longer time to make a decision on requests from Democratic states. In his social media rhetoric, President Trump has been explicit about his partisanship regarding disaster funding requests.

The Trump administration has the stated goal of reducing or eliminating the federal role of FEMA, and having individual states assume emergency management responsibilities instead. In 2025, FEMA was subjected to cuts by the Trump administration, firing more than 200 new and veteran employees on February 17, 2025. On March 24, 2025, then Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she would move to eliminate FEMA.

In May 2025, the interim leader of FEMA, Cameron Hamilton, was dismissed from his position one day after he testified to Congress: "I do not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency." He was replaced as interim FEMA leader by Marine Corps veteran David Richardson, who promptly told FEMA staff: "I alone in FEMA, speak for FEMA … Don't get in my way … because I will run right over you. I will achieve the president's intent."

In August 2025, more than 180 current and former FEMA employees signed an open letter, later called the "Katrina Declaration," which criticized recent policy changes under the Trump administration and warned they undermined the agency's ability to respond to disasters. The letter cited requirements for DHS approval of FEMA contracts, the reassignment of staff to immigration enforcement, cuts to preparedness programs, and the suppression of climate science. Following the letter, several current FEMA employees who signed by name were placed on paid administrative leave. FEMA stated the leave was not disciplinary, while critics and advocacy groups described it as retaliatory and raised concerns about political interference in FEMA operations.

Richardson, the acting FEMA administrator, resigned on November 17, 2025.

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