As communities across the nation brace for another year of hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and extreme heat, the nation’s disaster-response system needs clarity, not suspense. Yet just one hour before the FEMA Review Council was set to convene publicly and release recommendations after ten months of work, the White House canceled the meeting. That decision leaves officials at every level planning in the dark about FEMA’s future authorities, priorities, and resources.
President Trump established the FEMA Review Council by executive order in late January 2025 to evaluate FEMA’s future and recommend reforms to the nation’s disaster-response system. The council—co-chaired by the secretaries of Homeland Security and Defense—was intended to solicit input from governors, emergency managers, and other practitioners who operate at the sharp end of disaster response.
Yet the president has repeatedly questioned FEMA’s existence, floated eliminating it altogether, and argued that disaster response should be pushed almost entirely to the states.
The policy debate underlying the council’s creation is legitimate: how much responsibility should sit with states and localities, and what level of federal capacity is essential when catastrophic events overwhelm local resources. But whatever one’s preferred answer, the integrity of the review process matters. When a government-appointed advisory body is convened to take public input and issue recommendations, the public is entitled to see the outcome.
Over the course of 2025, the council heard from state and local officials managing increasingly frequent and complex disasters and reviewed public comments and operational data submitted through its formal process.
According to multiple reports, that process changed minds.
Rather than endorsing the wholesale dismantling of FEMA, the council’s draft findings reportedly reflected the agency’s continued relevance and the risks of weakening it. Those conclusions placed the council on a collision course with the administration that created it.
On December 10, CNN obtained a leaked draft of the council’s report. Within hours, the White House canceled the final public meeting where the council was scheduled to deliberate, vote, and formally present its recommendations. Officials cited the leak as justification, claiming the report was “not final.” Different accounts offered different rationales—from concerns about internal vetting to concerns about the leak itself—but the practical effect was the same: the council could not complete the public step that gives such reviews credibility.
What is unusual is canceling a public meeting after ten months of work especially when that meeting was the only mechanism through which the council could fulfill its mandate. Advisory councils do not exist to produce unofficial drafts. They exist to deliberate publicly, vote, and present recommendations to the president and the public.
Former FEMA leaders from both recent administrations warned that the delay leaves states, local governments, and the broader emergency-management enterprise planning in unnecessary uncertainty. Pete Gaynor, FEMA administrator during President Trump’s first term, said the report was expected to serve as a “north star” for the agency. Deanne Criswell, FEMA administrator under President Biden, emphasized that ambiguity about FEMA’s direction complicates preparedness and budgeting decisions at every level of government.
This is not a procedural dispute. It is a failure of accountability.
The FEMA Review Council was created by the president. Its members were chosen by the president. Its work was funded by taxpayers. Its mandate was not optional, and it was not fulfilled. Canceling the meeting did not merely delay a report; it nullified the process designed to test, challenge, and legitimize the administration’s own policy ambitions.
Disaster response is not a partisan issue. Hurricanes do not check voter registration. Wildfires do not discriminate by ideology. FEMA exists because states cannot always manage catastrophic events alone and because Americans expect their federal government to show up when everything else fails.
FEMA is often discussed as a bureaucratic line item. However, for communities, it is the difference between abandonment and recovery. When floods wash away homes, wildfires obliterate neighborhoods, or hurricanes leave towns without power, FEMA is the connective tissue that helps local governments and families move from shock to stability. For rural towns with limited tax bases, for coastal communities facing stronger storms, and for low-income families least able to absorb sudden loss, FEMA is not a distant agency. It is the bridge that allows recovery to be shared rather than borne alone.
If the administration believes FEMA should be dismantled, it should make that case openly. If the council’s findings support that conclusion, they should be debated publicly. If they do not, they should be heard anyway.
The answer is not secrecy. It is process.
The White House and the council’s leadership should promptly reschedule the public meeting, publish the draft that will be voted on, and clearly explain how public comments will be incorporated and when final recommendations will be delivered. If significant structural changes to FEMA are contemplated, the administration should also outline which steps it believes can be taken administratively and which would require congressional action, so that Congress and the public can engage on a clear record.
Disasters are not partisan—and they do not wait for Washington to resolve internal process disputes. The minimum requirement for responsible reform is a transparent, accountable process that allows practitioners and the public to evaluate the recommendations that will shape the nation’s disaster readiness.
Footnotes
- POLITICO, Vote to overhaul FEMA canceled after leaked report (Dec. 11, 2025)
- Federal News Network, Former FEMA leaders call for clarity amid delayed council report (Dec. 17, 2025)
- Associated Press, A Meeting Meant to Launch FEMA Reforms Is Abruptly Canceled (Dec. 11, 2025)
- Inside Climate News, White House Abruptly Cancels Meeting on FEMA’s Future After Leaked Report (Dec. 12, 2025)
- USA Today, White House abruptly cancels meeting to review plans for FEMA (Dec. 11, 2025)
- CNN, reporting on leaked FEMA Review Council draft (Dec. 10, 2025)
- Government Executive / States Newsroom, Major meeting on FEMA overhaul recommendation suddenly shelved (Dec. 11, 2025)
