An expert panel appointed by President Trump recommended on Thursday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency make changes that could speed the flow of disaster aid to communities but also force states to cover more of the costs of more disasters without federal help.<\/p>\n
Members of the panel described a disaster agency that they said has gotten too involved in long-term recovery efforts and become political, specifically criticizing its actions to help states during the coronavirus pandemic. Changes they recommended \u2014 which they acknowledged would require action by Congress \u2014 included significant overhaul of the way FEMA helps state and local governments pay for recovery and provides housing to disaster survivors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to refocus FEMA to get it back on what its mission originally was,\u201d said Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary. FEMA is part of the Homeland Security Department.<\/p>\n
The release of the report could accelerate changes to the disaster agency that state and local emergency officials have been forced to adapt to since Mr. Trump\u2019s second term began last January. The president has said he believes FEMA\u2019s work is too expensive and inefficient, a view that is shared by many emergency managers, and that governors should be able to handle more events on their own.<\/p>\n
Since last year, communities have waited longer than ever to learn whether Mr. Trump will approve their requests<\/a> for federal disaster aid, according to a New York Times analysis. The process through which the federal government reimburses state and local counterparts for disaster response and recovery expenses has always been bureaucratic, but Trump administration efforts to scrutinize that spending has at times created large backlogs of aid owed to states<\/a> and left communities unsure of what help, if any, they can expect<\/a> from FEMA.<\/p>\n Many of the report\u2019s proposals would require legislation, though there are some steps the Trump administration could take on its own to reshape FEMA\u2019s role in disasters. A bill with bipartisan support includes proposals similar to the recommendations released Thursday but has been stalled since September.<\/p>\n FEMA\u2019s disaster aid fund distributed $12 billion per year, on average, from 1992 through 2021, but those costs have frequently surpassed $40 billion a year more recently, as disasters have become more frequent and expensive. A burgeoning episode of the climate pattern known as El Ni\u00f1o, forecast to reach potentially extreme strength, could make disasters more numerous and costly over the next year.<\/p>\n The 10 members of the panel, known as the FEMA Review Council, include current and former emergency managers and government executives, largely from disaster-prone states in the South, including Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. All but three are Republicans.<\/p>\n Though Mr. Trump had suggested early in his second term that FEMA should perhaps \u201cgo away\u201d altogether, the panel\u2019s members quickly concluded that the agency should be overhauled, but not abolished<\/a>.<\/p>\n The group had been set to release its recommendations in December, but minutes before it was scheduled to start, that meeting was postponed indefinitely<\/a>, even appearing to catch Kristi Noem, then the homeland security secretary, by surprise. Twice since then, Mr. Trump issued executive orders to extend the timeline for the group\u2019s work.<\/p>\n Among the panel\u2019s recommendations released Thursday: Replacing the reimbursement process for disaster aid with one that delivers money more quickly and directly. Rather than basing aid totals on time-consuming surveys of actual damage, FEMA would use factors such as hurricane wind speeds or the height of floodwaters to determine how much money a disaster-struck community would be eligible to receive, paying out that amount within 30 days.<\/p>\n The group also recommended that FEMA play a smaller role in housing disaster survivors. It suggested that FEMA give up efforts to help survivors secure long-term housing. And it proposed that FEMA should help house only people whose homes are uninhabitable, and not those whose homes are damaged but not destroyed.<\/p>\n FEMA\u2019s assistance \u201cshould only be reserved for truly significant events,\u201d said Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management. States should be less reliant on the federal government to pay for and guide their emergency management efforts, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have gotten into a position where we are sustaining our programs on federal dollars,\u201d Mr. Guthrie said. \u201cThat was never the intent. I know that\u2019s going to ruffle some feathers.\u201d<\/p>\n The panel also called for a private takeover of the National Flood Insurance Program, which guarantees coverage to residents but has become insolvent as claims have skyrocketed and coastal development has increased in recent decades. Some in the insurance industry had lobbied the Trump administration<\/a>, saying there was appetite for companies to take on more of the flood insurance market.<\/p>\n Some aspects of the group\u2019s vision for FEMA have shifted over the past six months, according to a review by The Times of five drafts of the report.<\/p>\n For example, an earlier draft would have raised a cost threshold that guides the president\u2019s decision about whether FEMA should intervene by 50 percent, making it more difficult for disasters to qualify for federal aid. The final recommendations suggested using inflation to help make those decisions but didn\u2019t specify exactly how much higher the threshold should be.<\/p>\n An initial version of the report dated Oct. 31 had called for making FEMA a Cabinet-level agency whose leader reports directly to the president. That disappeared from the draft as Ms. Noem, who served as co-chair of the FEMA panel with Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, cut the report from 122 pages to 15 pages a day later.<\/p>\n The version that had been set for release in December included a recommendation that FEMA remain within the Homeland Security Department instead. That would ensure \u201ccritical resources, budgeting support, and intelligence capabilities, which enables stronger disaster preparedness, faster response, and better recovery capabilities,\u201d the panel wrote.<\/p>\n But the panel on Thursday made no mention of whether FEMA should remain part of the department.<\/p>\n FEMA, which dates to 1979, was moved into the Homeland Security Department when the department was established in 2003, but its place there has been at issue almost as long, based on concerns that go back to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Mismanagement by homeland security officials was found to have contributed to FEMA\u2019s bungled response to that disaster, prompting passage of a law that sought to give the disaster agency a measure of independence<\/a> while stopping short of making it independent again.<\/p>\n It will be up to Mr. Mullin, the former Republican senator from Oklahoma who was confirmed as homeland security secretary in March, to steer changes to FEMA policy. So far, he has taken steps to reverse actions by Ms. Noem to rein in FEMA, rescinding a rule requiring review of expenses of at least $100,000<\/a> and reversing some FEMA employees\u2019 dismissals<\/a>.<\/p>\n