FEMA Role in Disaster Response Examined in Congressional Hearing

• By: Corey Miller
• July 24, 2025

On Wednesday, the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management held a hearing titled “Fixing Emergency Management: Examining Improvements to FEMA’s Disaster Response.” The only witness for the hearing was Mr. David Richardson, a senior White House official who is performing the duties of Administrator of FEMA.

During the hearing, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Missouri) and Ranking Member Rick Larsen (D-Washington) formally introduced the “FEMA Act of 2025” (H.R. 4669), a bipartisan bill to reform FEMA.

The bill seeks to remove the agency from the Department of Homeland Security and restore it to a cabinet-level agency with direct oversight from the president. The bill’s objectives include streamlining disaster assistance programs to accelerate aid to survivors and encouraging states to invest in disaster mitigation efforts.

Among other things, the legislation supports proactive disaster mitigation efforts, enhances accountability by banning political bias in aid distribution, establishes a public disaster funding tracker and requires a full review of FEMA policies. Additional reforms address fraud prevention, clarify building codes and ensures FEMA assistance is fair, transparent and cost-effective.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating the Council to Assess the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Twenty members were appointed to the council and directed to conduct a full-scale review of FEMA and submit a report to the president with recommended changes to the federal agency. The council has held two public meetings and has until November to submit its final report.

Notably, the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which is managed by FEMA, received very little mention during the congressional hearing and council meetings.

The Big “I” will continue to monitor any congressional and executive actions pertaining to FEMA and natural disasters, and will provide members with updates in the weekly News & Views e-newsletter.

Corey Miller is Big “I” director of federal government affairs.