A bipartisan group of senators held a secret meeting this week to try and stop President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem from interfering with and destroying FEMA, according to reports Thursday.
The disaster relief agency has been targeted by the Trump administration and the meeting on Tuesday aimed to build bipartisan support to reshape the office, Politico reported.
Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) organized the meeting and said there was mounting concern over the potential structural changes, especially after Trump signaled the agency was too slow to responding to disasters. Other members of the administration, including Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, have also said they want to decrease federal funding for state disaster aid.
“There is strong, bipartisan interest in improving FEMA,” Welch said.
Trump has put pressure on states to assist ICE agents "as a condition of receiving the money," a politicized move that has concerned lawmakers, Politico reported. "That policy was derided by a federal judge who called it a 'ham-handed attempt to bully' the states."
The meeting at Welch's office on Capitol Hill included FEMA chiefs Craig Fugate and Peter Gaynor, and Patrick Sheehan, who runs the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, said it was reportedly "unusually constructive."
Fugate described the conversation among the lawmakers as "an impressive bipartisan discussion about how to work for solutions."
“At most hearings, people talk past each other. This event, people were talking to each other and engaging in conversations in a very collegial approach,” Fugate said. “I was just very impressed by the caliber of the conversation.”
Andy Kim (D-NJ) said he was hopeful after the meeting that the agency would be revised under bipartisan collaboration.
“This was just an opportunity for us to have a conversation, to hear from some experts and really try to discuss it without the cameras, without the posturing. And I was really encouraged by it,” Kim told Politico. “A lot of my colleagues showed up, and a lot really talked about their interest in continuing to work on this.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) were also reportedly in attendance. In 2024, Tillis' state was devastated by Hurricane Helene.
The moment was particularly important to senators focused on FEMA-related legislation and disaster relief for their states.
“There’s a lot of concern about the potential for [Homeland Security Secretary Kristi] Noem and Trump to disband FEMA or dismantle it slowly,” an unnamed Senate aide told Politico. The Senators at the meeting hope to “better shape the agency and support reforms before it is destroyed completely by the administration.”
