Cameron Hamilton, acting Federal Emergency Management Agency director, was fired Thursday, multiple national media outlets reported.
Hamilton’s ouster came one day after he testified before the House Appropriations Committee’s Homeland Security Subcommittee, where he advocated for “top-down reform” at the agency.
“FEMA was established to provide focused support in truly catastrophic disasters. Yet at times, we have strayed far from that core mission and evolved into an overextended federal bureaucracy — attempting to manage every type of emergency, no matter how minor,” he said. “Instead of being a last resort, FEMA is all too often used by states and public officials as a financial backstop for routine issues that, frankly, should be handled locally.”
Later, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a democrat representing Connecticut’s third congressional district, asked Hamilton whether he supported the Trump administration’s intent to eliminate the agency.
“As the senior advisor to the president on disasters and emergency management, and to the secretary of Homeland Security, I do not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” he said before adding that the decision wasn’t up to him. “That is a conversation that should be had between the president of the United States and this governing body.”
President Donald Trump has mentioned eliminating the agency multiple times since his second term began in January. Speaking during a press conference on the devastating California fires in January, Trump called the agency “a big disappointment.”
“We had it working well, we had great people, but FEMA’s not good anymore,” he said before criticizing the agency’s response to Hurricane Helene last September in North Carolina. “I say you don’t need FEMA. You need a good state government, and when you have a problem in Los Angeles or when you have a problem even in the state of California, you have your own — essentially — FEMA. You fix it yourself.”
Trump criticized the agency again in a February social media post, writing that the agency “spent tens of millions of dollars in Democrat areas, disobeying orders, but left the people of North Carolina high and dry.”
“It is now under review and investigation,” he wrote before switching to capital letters. “THE BIDEN RUN FEMA HAS BEEN A DISASTER. FEMA SHOULD BE TERMINATED! IT HAS BEEN SLOW AND TOTALLY INEFFECTIVE. INDIVIDUAL STATES SHOULD HANDLE STORMS, ETC., AS THEY COME. BIG SAVINGS, FAR MORE EFFICIENT!!!”
Since the 2017 hurricanes, FEMA has committed $21.44 billion in public assistance funds and nearly $200 million in hazard mitigation grants to the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to the V.I. Office of Disaster Recovery website.
Trump has already started letting states hit by natural disasters fend for themselves. After storms and tornadoes killed dozens in Arkansas two months ago, Gov. Sarah Sanders requested a presidential disaster declaration to secure federal recovery funding, which Trump denied.
Asked Monday about cuts to another agency — the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. said he was concerned about the denial.
“That, for us, could be catastrophic,” he said, “and that’s why we have to keep these lines of credit open — different sources — where we can respond immediately to a major disaster.”
