FEMA used to have (and may still have) a monthly e-publication, called FEMA Forward, that shared(s) stories, announcements, and opportunities related to FEMA employees, events, activities, and education. I always liked the title. FEMA is in constant motion, always moving forward, always updating policies and programs to help survivors, communities, and states.
FEMA is governed by the Stafford Act and has made improvements through several Acts including the Disaster Mitigation Act, the Defense Production Act, the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Act, the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act, and the Disaster Recovery Reform Act. Each and every one of these Acts propelled FEMA further forward. FEMA has demonstrated repeatedly that more than simply moving forward, the agency is forward leaning – innovative, cutting-edge, progressive, and visionary.
During the last few months, FEMA is once again back in the spotlight of change. And everyone has an opinion. Politicians, emergency managers, voluntary organizations, philanthropic institutions, government employees, and more. There are already way too many cooks in the kitchen. But I like to dabble in the kitchen myself and thought I would offer my own ingredients for a forward leaning FEMA future recipe. I anticipate that some analysts may be interested in an idea or two, and certainly others will balk and object. So, maybe just consider this an a la carte menu.
Essential caveat – For any idea, mine or others, the devil is in the details. Mindful and deliberate collaboration and planning are essential for success. I also want to be clear that the employees rights and futures must be included in that planning with dignity and respect, leveraging early retirements, opportunities for lateral moves, and plenty of advance notice on organizational changes that address employee rights and opportunities.
Future FEMA
Preparedness. With the exception of Ready.Gov, which is fairly evergreen and easy to maintain, completely eliminate FEMA’s role in emergency preparedness. This is not to suggest that preparedness is unimportant. It is critical. But show me the evidence that FEMA’s role in this effort has made a difference. Statistically, people have not been increasing their preparedness year-to-year. FEMA’s Emergency Management Performance Grants (EMPG) used to have language that required the states to spend a certain amount on preparedness. The states pushed back on that and eventually the language was deleted. As a result, most states significantly reduce or eliminated preparedness funding altogether. More than all of that, the whole idea of have a plan, get a kit, has not achieved meaningful and measurable results. Instead, Ready.Gov should steer messaging to self-reliance. I don’t have a kit or a written plan. But I am self-reliant. The more people who become self-reliant reduces the need for emergency responders, leaving them to focus on the few who truly need help. We haven’t even tried this approach. It’s time.
Incentives to Mitigate. FEMA used to say that for every $1 spent on mitigation, $6 is saved in disaster losses. One study found that every $1 spent on mitigation and resilience saves communities $13 in damages, cleanup costs, and economic impact. Whatever that savings number actually is, it is still savings. It is a smart investment. Here we have data to support the effort.
National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Eliminate it. Period. The program is in debt. It will always be in debt. This may sound harsh but consider the context. Individuals pay for their own car insurance. Individuals pay for their own life insurance. Individuals pay for their own home insurance. However, because of this program to subsidize flood insurance, all American taxpayers pay for some American’s flood insurance. Turn this completely back to private sector insurance companies. It will be extremely painful for some and should transition over a period of years to give time for insurance recipients to adjust and make sound decisions.
Federal Disaster Declaration Criteria. This needs to change. In all my years as a spokesperson at FEMA, the one question I always feared from a reporter, but never got, was to provide a clear explanation of the list of criteria and how the state did or did not meet each one. It would be tough to answer because there is too much subjectivity in the process. You can read the language in the Stafford Act. This also explains why there are more approvals for states who have the same party affiliation as the President and more questionable denials for those who don’t. More objective language would help. The other change here needs to be raising the bar for federal assistance. I think emergency managers are sometimes too close to the action to see this. We all want to help people, but if you ask the average American what disasters in the last year have been so severe that the federal government should help, I think they would be hard pressed to come up with anything beyond Tropical Storm Helene and the California Fires. Maybe a few others. According to FEMA’s Disaster Declaration website, there were 182 Declarations in 2024, an average of one every other day. That is just too much.
Grants. FEMA works tremendously hard to ensure the worthiness of grant recipients. FEMA further applies considerable time and effort to ensure grants are used for their intended purposes and within all applicable criteria, policy and laws. But FEMA lacks the personnel and resources to provide consistent oversight to ensure these funds are sufficiently audited, inspected, evaluated and validated. Future FEMA needs to have a process and guidance to ensure project costs are validated and estimates are verified by qualified, subject matter expert staff. This needs to happen across all of the different Grants. Telling future FEMA to do this more thoroughly is insufficient. It must be staffed and resourced to do so effectively and efficiently.
Individual Assistance. I know many people will object to my position here, but the current version of Individual Assistance should be completely eliminated. Disasters follow a progression from individual to neighbor to community to local to state to federal. Yet, Individual Assistance basically skips every step in between. It creates confusion (Individuals experience a disaster and immediately call out FEMA). It creates false expectations (regardless of messaging otherwise, people think this will make them whole). It confuses roles (even if there is need for federal support, it makes no sense that FEMA, instead of HUD, is managing temporary housing). It also kind of rewards people who choose not to insure. I have empathy for individuals. If our choice as a society is to continue this, future FEMA should develop criteria and formulas to write one check to the state and have the states administer from there.
Public Assistance. I think we should maintain public assistance. When a disaster is overwhelming to a state, it does make sense to me that the federal government provide Public Assistance to the states for hospitals, fire stations, police stations, and other public facilities that provide essential services when the state is unable to do so. However, like Individual Assistance (if continued), future FEMA should develop criteria and formulas to write one check to the state and have the states administer from there. Both of these changes will save billions of dollars by eliminating specific subordinate programs, the bureaucracy of the processes, and the elimination of massive FEMA deployments to manage them.
Long Term Recovery. End FEMA’s role. Any federal funds to support long term recovery need to be accounted for in the Public Assistance check. No large-scale deployments. Future FEMA can still provide expertise, lessons learned, advice and consultation since they have a wider view of recovery operations across the nation.
The National Disaster & Emergency Management University (NDEMU). Keep it. Build upon it. Our states and the nation will continue to need well-trained emergency management personnel, strategic leadership, and innovation. In fact, I think it should expand upon the innovation by developing a robust Innovation Center, where experts from the public and private sector work together to find better, faster, smarter solutions for future disasters.
Remove FEMA from DHS. Ever since FEMA was made a component of DHS, this debate has continued. Many for and many against. I no longer work for FEMA, so I do not have a personal dog in the hunt. But having worked there, my observation is that the juice isn’t worth the squeeze to stay a component of DHS. Future FEMA should be a standalone agency reporting directly to the President, with the FEMA Administrator becoming a full Cabinet member, for no other reasons than power and authority. The next two topics explain further.
Roles. When a state is overwhelmed by a disaster the federal government should help. But what actually happens for the most part is that when a state is overwhelmed by a disaster FEMA helps. Sure, the other Cabinets and Agencies get on calls and sometimes send a liaison, and a few provide funding streams. But it is completely inadequate. HHS should lead pandemic responses. HUD should solve housing. DOT should deal with transportation. DOL should work on the unemployment issues, and so forth. FEMA should coordinate all of it. The reality is that FEMA has to beg and plead for the elements of the federal government to fulfill their roles. Bringing the FEMA Administrator int the Cabinet and Cabinet meetings will expedite problem solving and save lives.
Change the Name. I always found it odd and interesting that I worked for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and we coordinated emergencies in a huge room called the National Response Coordination Center (NRCC). The names should be consistent and reflect the mission. First, we need to decide whether we are Federal or National. I prefer National because that includes the private sector and reflects a larger and more accurate team. I think the second word should be Emergency because FEMA does more than just Response. I am conflicted on the third word but think we could use both. We need Management to parallel the states conducting Emergency Management, but we need Coordination to remind people that FEMA Coordinates, while other Cabinets have roles to manage too. So I propose that the newly-named National Emergency Management Coordination Agency (NEMCA) coordinate emergencies in the National Emergency Management Coordination Center (NEMCC). Beyond all of that, changing the name when you change the mission and roles helps to change understanding and expectations. Words matter. Names matter.
Cycle Rotations. I said at the beginning that this menu is a la carte. If all of my preceding ideas are implemented, there would be a much smaller deployment footprint. If they are not implemented, we need to address the overwhelming strain of constant large-scale, enduring deployments. Future FEMA could take a lesson from the National Guard and develop a system to cycle employees for some version of 90-day rotations to Train, Maintain, Sustain, and Deploy.
Decentralization. Here is a tiny bit of dirty laundry from within FEMA that not everyone knows. There has always been a bit of a disconnect, jealousies, and infighting between HQs, Regional Offices, and Joint Field Offices. I always found it a bit odd. Every single one is a federal employee. The only differences are geography and roles. I have personally worked in all three capacities. HQs should focus on policy. Regions should have the latitude and authority to adapt to meet the needs of their geographical threats, demographics, states’ capacities, et al. And once a Federal Coordinating Officer is assigned a disaster, get the other cooks out of the kitchen.
Leadership. I don’t know if these statistics are still accurate, but a few years back, I learned that DHS had a higher percentage of political appointees than any other Cabinet. And within DHS, FEMA had a higher percentage of political appointees than any other component. I actually agree with the concept of political appointees. But enough is enough. FEMA leadership should predominantly be comprised of experienced emergency managers to ensure effective disaster response and recovery efforts. This allows for a more specialized and knowledgeable leadership team, potentially leading to better coordination and outcomes. The FEMA Administrator and a handful at HQs should continue to be political appointees. But the ten Regional Administrators should all be highly trained and vetted career emergency managers. Lives depend on it.
Conclusion
I started with metaphors from cooking and the kitchen, so I will end there as well. The first book I ever read about cooking was Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. He introduced me to a phrase I love, and a practice I follow, Mis En Place, or everything in it’s place. In his words, “The universe is in order when your station is set up the way you like it: you know where to find everything with your eyes closed, everything you need during the course of the shift is at the ready at arm’s reach, your defenses are deployed.”
That would be the perfect recipe for Future FEMA. Forward leaning and everything in its place.
Dan Stoneking is the Owner and Principal of Stoneking Strategic Communications , the Author of Cultivate Your Garden: Crisis Communications from 30,000 Feet to Three Feet , the Founder and Vice President of the Emergency Management External Affairs Association , and an Adjunct Professor in the Communications Department at West Chester University.