The Federal Emergency Management Agency is under scrutiny for its bureaucracy and delays in the second Trump administration. In the House of Representatives, there’s a bipartisan push to take it out from under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security.
The legislation that would do that, which was introduced by Republican Rep. Sam Graves, would give FEMA more agency and elevate its director to a Cabinet-level role that would report directly to President Donald Trump. The legislation has an uncertain path ahead, especially given Trump’s calls for letting states take the lead in natural disaster response and the strong desire among some Republicans to get rid of the agency completely.
But the FEMA Act of 2025 has gotten enough support to pass out of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee by a vote of 57-3. The office of Rep. Andrew Garbarino, chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, which also has jurisdiction, declined to comment on when his committee would take up the bill.
“That’s the way it used to be,” Graves, chair of the transportation committee, told NOTUS last week. “That makes them more accountable, and it makes it more streamlined. And I want them to answer to the president.”
Graves introduced this bill in July. In recent weeks, multiple reports, including one by NOTUS, have raised questions about FEMA’s ability to respond quickly after an emergency.
For lawmakers supportive of this type of legislation, the idea of elevating FEMA has appealed precisely because of the potential it has to speed along responses.
Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told NOTUS that he “doesn’t want to get stuck in bureaucracy” and that he is skeptical of “the idea of another Cabinet-level position.” However, he does see some possible benefits to the move.
“You would hope it would have more direct control over leadership, and improvements would be faster reaction time, a better cure,” Van Drew said. “Sometimes it’d be $200 and your house is demolished. Or more intelligent answers. … But the bottom line is, when we’ve seen tragedies, people have felt very dissatisfied with the help of FEMA.”
The legislation currently has 21 co-sponsors, and its prospects are uncertain. House Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Majority Whip Tom Emmer did not respond to NOTUS’ request for comment.
Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz and Republican Rep. Byron Donalds introduced another bill in March that would similarly restore the agency’s Cabinet-level status and also ensure that its leader has prior “knowledge of emergency management and homeland security.” And Sens. Thom Tillis and Alex Padilla introduced a companion bill in April.
“This commonsense, bipartisan bill will help cut red tape and save lives by separating FEMA from the Department of Homeland Security and restoring its status as an independent, cabinet-level agency,” said Tillis, a retiring Republican, in a statement when his bill was introduced.
He noted the destruction of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina last year, and added that “the need for this legislation is more urgent than ever.”
Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have expressed a desire to “eliminate” the agency. The White House did not answer questions on whether the president would be supportive of moving the agency out from DHS.
The idea of breaking out FEMA from under DHS has support from members of both party.
“What we’ve seen in disaster response in the past is that the bureaucracy of FEMA, the multiple layers, complicate response times,” Rep. Shomari Figures, a Democratic member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told NOTUS. “[The change would] remove some of the layers of approval that are necessary for FEMA to operate.”
Figures added that the bill would give FEMA “its own independent budget. So budget determinations are made around FEMA as an isolated entity, as opposed to an entity that’s tucked within DHS.”
FEMA was established in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter in response to several natural disasters. The agency had a “dual mission of emergency management and civil defense.” President Bill Clinton made FEMA a Cabinet-level agency in 1996.
The Department of Homeland Security was established in 2003 in response to 9/11, and took control of the agency along with 21 other organizations.
There have been calls to make FEMA a Cabinet-level agency since then, including from retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré, who led the military recovery effort after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 — FEMA’s response was heavily criticized after that storm. Michael Coen, former FEMA chief of staff during the Obama and Biden administrations, told NOTUS that while making FEMA a Cabinet-level agency could allow the administration to further alter the agency, future presidents could do the same.
“I think being elevated to Cabinet would give the FEMA administrator more credibility of being able to work with other members of the Cabinet and ensure that response to disasters get the attention that they deserve,” Coen told NOTUS. “And it’s not something that’s like on the back burner that takes 20 years, like we’ve seen with Katrina.”
Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, told NOTUS he hasn’t discussed the bill with anyone, but he’ll “reserve whatever consideration” for when it comes to his committee.
“It would be interesting to talk to the supporters of it to see what they’re trying to fix,” Thompson said. “And we go forward from there.”
Other lawmakers opposed it from the jump, including Republican Reps. Tim Burchett, Eric Burlison and Scott Perry, who voted against it on the transportation committee.
“Somebody has to convince me,” Burchett said about the proposal. “But giving them any more power, any more bureaucracy is just to me, is counterproductive.”
Louisiana Democrat Rep. Troy Carter, who serves on the House Committee on Homeland Security, told NOTUS that the effort to relocate the agency “feels nefarious.”
“Absolutely not, I don’t know what the fascination is with tinkering with FEMA,” Carter said when asked about the proposal. “FEMA needs to be strengthened. ... It doesn’t need to be moved. It doesn’t need to be eliminated. It needs to stay exactly where it is. It needs to be given teeth to serve the people of the country.”
Rep. Clay Higgins, who has previously introduced legislation to eliminate FEMA, told NOTUS the Graves’ proposal hasn’t changed his opinion.
“I think they should become a basement-level agency,” Higgins said. “They get packed up in boxes.”
Sen. Rick Scott, who serves on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, told NOTUS that Congress first needs to clearly define what role the agency will play in disaster response.
“FEMA is a check writer. They don’t have first responders, they don’t have firefighters. They don’t have people like that. They have a limited number of people,” Scott said. “So what we got to do is say what responsibility should the federal government have? Then you can probably structure where it should be.”