Investigate, Reverse Trump’s Reckless FEMA Cuts Before Next Disaster

The Trump administration’s purge of FEMA staff is unconscionable and reckless. More than 1,400 employees, including many who cut their teeth after Hurricane Katrina, have been dismissed or sidelined. These are the very experts who built FEMA’s modern response system, and their absence will be felt in every storm and fire that hits American communities. Former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate warned that dismantling institutional memory like this is “an engraved invitation for disaster.” He is right. When expertise is discarded, lives are lost. These firings come as FEMA is already under immense strain. This summer’s floods in Texas killed more than 120 people and left thousands displaced. FEMA response was slowed by staffing shortages and delayed approvals, according to NPR reporting. The agency is now at its weakest point in decades, even as climate change drives stronger hurricanes, longer wildfire seasons, and catastrophic floods. Cutting staff now is not belt-tightening. It is sabotage. Congress must investigate these firings and move to reinstate critical staff. Oversight committees should demand a full accounting of who was dismissed and why. FEMA must be restored to full operational strength before the next hurricane season, not hollowed out for political convenience. History will not forgive leaders who watched Americans drown, burn, and suffer while gutting the very agency designed to keep them safe. This is not just bad policy. It is a betrayal of the public trust, and it must be stopped now.