Just days after a Trump-appointed council recommended sweeping operational changes to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), former Acting Secretary Cameron Hamilton has been nominated to take back control of the agency. The nomination comes a year after Hamilton was ousted amid a falling out with the president and members of his administration, including former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
Hamilton’s reinstatement comes alongside that of some 200 former FEMA employees who are being asked to return to the agency after losing their jobs in a house-cleaning that’s currently under scrutiny as part of a lawsuit brought by the American Federation of Government Employees and other groups.
Some of the reinstated employees signed a public letter last year, known as the “Katrina declaration,” which warned that the agency was operating in a diminished capacity; more than a dozen had been put on paid administrative leave for eight months before being brought back into the fold.
“As we approach the 2026 hurricane season and the FIFA World Cup, FEMA is taking targeted steps to stabilize our workforce and strengthen readiness,” a FEMA spokesperson said. “Under new leadership, FEMA is addressing outstanding personnel actions to ensure workforce stability and a strong, deployable surge force for upcoming national events and potential disasters.”
Hamilton’s fallout with the Trump administration stemmed from his May 7, 2025, appearance at a House Appropriations subcommittee oversight hearing. According to Reuters, Homeland Security officials revoked Hamilton’s security pass and ordered him to cancel his planned testimony, which he did not do. In his subsequent testimony, Hamilton pushed back against administration plans to dismantle the agency.
However, Hamilton’s own tenure was not without controversy, according to the Associated Press, which quoted multiple FEMA employees speaking on condition of anonymity. During his time at the head of the agency, he reportedly canceled programs that have since been restored by a federal judge, stopped door-to-door survivor canvassing, provided access to survivors’ private information to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), fired staff for processing a reimbursement payment to New York City for an agency program and “shared posts on X promoting misinformation about FEMA spending during Hurricane Helene.”
Prior to the announcement of Hamilton’s reinstatement, the FEMA review council had recommended changes designed to simplify the process for disaster survivors to obtain relief funds, raise the threshold for federal intervention in disaster recovery and shrink the National Flood Insurance Program.
“The transformed agency should implement common-sense approaches to realign criteria for federal disaster declaration thresholds to return responsibility to the States, Tribes, and Territories,” the report reads. It also “recommends a comprehensive reform plan centered on a strategic shift toward a primary role for the private market, with the goal of fostering a more resilient and financially stable flood risk management system.”
The council is made up of representatives from city, state and federal governments, including Markwayne Mullin, Secretary of Homeland Security; Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense; Greg Abbott, Governor of Texas; and others.
According to reporting from National Public Radio, an earlier draft of the council’s report also called for FEMA’s workforce to be cut by half and for the agency’s name to be changed. These recommendations did not make it into the final draft.
