According to several FEMA officials who spoke to CNN, the agency is in disarray as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem promises to “eliminate FEMA.” Disaster assistance, grant funding, and hiring have all largely stalled, endangering the agency’s capacity to respond to significant disasters.

CNN has learned that senior officials from the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA met Tuesday to talk about the agency’s future and their options for closing it.

According to multiple sources familiar with the meeting, the group, which included Noem, FEMA Acting Administrator Cameron Hamilton, and longtime Trump ally Corey Lewandowski, discussed whether to revoke President Donald Trump’s recent executive order creating a FEMA Review Council and instead move more swiftly to dismantle the agency.

This is the most recent in a string of attacks and actions against FEMA that have halted the agency’s operations and sparked questions about its capacity to respond to the approaching hurricane season, which is only a few weeks away.

“We usually finish up hurricane plans in March. A FEMA official who works directly on disaster response told CNN, “A lot of that got paused.” “So, the fact that we aren’t prepared is already having an effect.”

Employees at FEMA received an email last week titled “Hiring Update,” outlining a new procedure that will take effect immediately. The majority of FEMA employees, many of whom hold positions with terms ranging from two to four years, must receive direct approval from Secretary Noem’s team in order to be renewed for another term.

The majority of the public-facing jobs that aid in providing aid to communities during disaster response and recovery are included in the positions listed in the memo that CNN was able to obtain. Verifying disaster damage, running recovery centers, and assisting victims in registering for aid are just a few of their many duties.

According to a FEMA official, “it’s pretty much everyone that goes out in the field.” “They are the foundation of the response, especially when it comes to maintaining operations.”

The memo states that the Cadre of On-Call Response Employees (CORE), Reservists, Temporary Fulltime Employees, and Local Hires are among the affected positions.

According to a Government Accountability Office report, approximately 74% of FEMA’s workforce consists of CORE and Reservist employees.

Another FEMA official told CNN, “I believe their terms will be allowed to expire and they won’t be renewed.” “Until something significant and negative occurs, I’m not sure if it will truly be felt. And the most concerning thing, in my opinion, is that states are now reluctant to voice their grievances for fear of the consequences.

One official told CNN that they have been spending days reviewing employees’ renewal dates and creating job justifications rather than getting ready for hurricane season.

According to the official, “it’s now a fear of, what else?” Can we return to our work and concentrate? We have the impression that something else will come up that will need a lot of our time and attention.

Frozen Money
According to a source familiar with the matter, FEMA staff are awaiting guidance on how to issue payments to ensure they comply with Trump’s executive orders that limit funding for immigration programs and sanctuary cities, which has resulted in more than $100 billion of previously awarded grant money and disaster assistance being frozen at the agency.

According to several sources, FEMA officials finally received that guidance on Tuesday, which should help those funds start flowing again. However, the timeline for executing those payments is unclear, and officials who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity are still concerned about the funding disruption.

States, municipalities, and nonprofit organizations are unable to receive reimbursement because nearly all FEMA payments outside of individual disaster assistance have been halted. This includes organizations such as fire departments, which often receive federal grants to help with staffing and equipment, as well as disaster recovery funds to assist in the wake of Hurricane Helene and the California wildfires.

In February, after approving payments of approximately $80 million in federal grant money to New York City to aid in migrant shelters, the Department of Homeland Security accused four FEMA employees, including its chief financial officer, of evading leadership and fired them. DHS promptly reclaimed the money.

The fired employees “effectively laundered the forbidden funding” and “knowingly hid this information from legal counsel to manipulate the funding process and undermine the Secretary’s order,” a DHS spokesperson told CNN at the time. The payments were made in error “because FEMA was under the misunderstanding” that they were permitted, according to court documents.

According to several sources who spoke to CNN, the incident has made FEMA employees more hesitant. Many have expressed concern that they might lose their jobs as a result of a misinterpreted payment.

FEMA has already implemented a hiring freeze under the Trump Administration.

FEMA Acting Administrator Cameron Hamilton emailed agency employees earlier this month to inform them that he had sent Secretary Noem a proposal to cut FEMA’s workforce.

In the email that CNN was able to obtain, Hamilton wrote, “The plan broadly outlines an approach to reduce the agency’s staffing posture through unification of like-functions and with care that enhances our ability to deliver the mission, examines our geographic footprint, and rebalances federal and state roles in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery.” “The plan provides President Trump’s FEMA Review Council with crucial decision-making space to promote long-term systemic change for our agency’s future.”

Several requests for comment on the specifics of the reduction in force plan have not received a response from FEMA. In an emailed statement to CNN, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said, “We appreciate the media’s coverage of Secretary Noem’s efforts to eradicate waste, fraud, and abuse within the Department of Homeland Security.”

A bill that would separate FEMA from DHS and make it a cabinet-level organization that answers directly to the president has been introduced by a bipartisan pair of congressmen.

Representatives Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat, and Byron Donalds, a Republican, introduced the FEMA Independence Act this week with the goal of reducing bureaucratic burdens at the disaster relief organization, which is dealing with an increasing number of catastrophic natural disasters.