Some FEMA employee layoffs put on hold, while reform council renewed

President Donald Trump on Jan. 23 extended a council tasked with making recommendations to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as FEMA is pausing certain staff cuts at the same time that it is responding to the recent winter storm. 

In an executive order, the president renewed the FEMA Review Council through March 25, 2026. The panel was slated to vote on its final recommendations in December, but the meeting was canceled suddenly. The Trump administration has sought to shift greater responsibility for disaster response and recovery to states. 

But as at least 21 states declared emergencies to handle a major winter storm — including in the Washington, D.C., area, where federal employees were permitted to telework on Monday — FEMA has stopped many of its workforce reductions. 

In a Jan. 22 email, FEMA officials said they were halting offboarding for Cadre of On-Call Response and Recovery staffers whose contracts were set to expire. CORE employees, who are some of the first to deploy following a disaster, work under renewable two-to-four year contracts.

The email also said that such staffers who received termination letters on Jan. 22 would instead be asked to stay on.

CNN, which was the first to cover the email, also reported that since the start of January about 300 such workers have been terminated after the Homeland Security Department, FEMA’s parent agency, opted not to renew their contracts.

FEMA did not respond to a request for comment. 

In addition, the disaster agency has shed more than 2,000 permanent employees since the start of Trump’s second term.  

Earlier this month, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that further slashing FEMA’s staffing levels would be “irresponsible” after several outlets reported that the agency had preliminary plans to cut more than 40% of CORE staffers. 

The compromise fiscal 2026 DHS appropriations bill would increase FEMA’s operational budget by 18% and includes language to prohibit any agency reorganizations, office closures or eliminations in function without congressional authorization. 

While that measure has cleared the House, its passage in the Senate — along with several of the other 11 bills that annually fund government agencies — is in doubt following the Jan. 24 killing of protestor Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a Veterans Affairs Department nurse, by Border Patrol agents. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in response to the shooting that he would object to a package with six of the appropriations bills if it includes funding for DHS. If an agreement is not reached before Jan. 30, when current funding expires, a partial government shutdown could begin, as Congress has already passed the other six appropriations measures. 

Eric Katz contributed to this report