The Federal Emergency Management Agency cuts its workforce without assessing how that would impact disaster response and recovery, the Government Accountability Office determined in a report published Tuesday.
Despite previous reports that staffing shortages have impeded past recovery efforts, FEMA in 2025 and 2026 pushed staffers to take voluntary separation incentives like the deferred resignation program and fired new and recently promoted employees who were still in their probationary periods.
Ultimately, GAO found that about 17% of FEMA’s workforce, more than 4,300 employees, separated in fiscal 2025 and that, as of April, the agency employed nearly 21,000 staffers.
“DHS and FEMA did not assess whether offering the voluntary workforce reduction programs to employees would improve or limit FEMA’s ability to meet its mission needs moving forward, and the effort was not targeted or limited based on the agency’s workforce needs and gaps,” investigators wrote.
The report also covers a FEMA decision last winter to not renew the contracts for hundreds of temporary full-time Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employees, who are the largest contingent in the agency’s workforce. But officials in May — after Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin replaced Kristi Noem — offered impacted individuals their positions back.
“We found no evidence that DHS and FEMA leadership assessed whether the nonrenewal of CORE employees’ contracts in January 2026 would affect FEMA’s ability to respond to disasters,” investigators wrote.
They also reported that FEMA was under a hiring freeze from January 2025 through May 2026, except for roles deemed “essential” or “mission-critical” by DHS.
A lawsuit against the FEMA staff cuts likewise revealed that agency officials at one point proposed halving the disaster agency’s workforce without determining which roles should be shed.
GAO also flagged that FEMA in May 2025 rescinded its strategic plan and that, while officials said they would promptly create a new one, they haven’t yet.
“Without a strategic plan that outlines clear goals and objectives, FEMA continues to operate without the strategic direction on which to base its analysis of future workforce needs to ensure it can meet its mission,” investigators wrote.
Officials told GAO that strategic planning was delayed by the activities of the FEMA Review Council. While President Donald Trump at one point mused about eliminating the disaster agency, the White House-backed review council in May instead recommended reducing FEMA’s footprint and giving state and local governments a larger share of responsibility after emergencies.
GAO recommended that FEMA develop a strategic plan and conduct a workforce analysis to assess staffing and mission needs. DHS concurred with the suggestions but said implementation is contingent on the agency getting a new Senate-confirmed leader.
The Senate is expected to consider the nomination of Cameron Hamilton to be FEMA administrator, which is part of an en bloc package of executive branch nominees to be voted on, in the near future. He led the agency in an acting capacity at the start of 2025 but was fired after testifying to Congress that he did “not believe it is in the best interest of the American people” to eliminate FEMA.
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that GAO’s report “confirms what we have been saying for over a year.”
“The Trump administration’s drastic cuts to FEMA’s workforce — as well as forcing thousands of personnel to quit — have damaged the agency’s ability to respond to disasters and has rid it of critical institutional knowledge,” he said in a statement.
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers also advanced out of committee a bill that would overhaul FEMA, including by making it an independent, cabinet-level agency.
