As Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem vows to “eliminate FEMA,” the agency is in turmoil, with disaster assistance, grant money, and hiring largely stalled, threatening its ability to respond to major disasters,

Some experts viewed the executive order as a softening of Trump’s rhetoric on FEMA. The Biden-Harris administration had issued a national resilience strategy in January 2025, before Trump came into office, that also called for increased state and local government preparedness.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem and others are weighing whether to strip FEMA of some of its key functions, such as helping rebuild after disasters.