Democrats assailed President Donald Trump after a government report Tuesday said his hiring freeze and other steps have left the nation’s disaster agency at risk of “having critically low staffing levels” to handle a major disaster.
The Government Accountability Office’s scathing analysis of the Federal Emergency Management Agency quotes unnamed FEMA officials saying they were “wandering around in the dark” as they awaited administration direction on staffing.
“Officials told us they have been operating in uncertainty and confusion while still trying to meet the mission with the staff they have,” the nonpartisan GAO found. The findings back up criticism that FEMA lacks the personnel to handle a catastrophe such as the two simultaneous hurricanes that devastated the Southeast in 2024.
“This report confirms what we have been saying for over a year: the Trump administration’s drastic cuts to FEMA’s workforce — as well as forcing thousands of personnel to quit — have damaged the agency’s ability to respond to disasters,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said in a statement.
