Ahead Of Today’s Hearing On An Independent FEMA, Congress Must Center Survivors, Not Politics
The Bipartisan FEMA Act Would Free Disaster Response From a Department With Other Priorities. Survivors Have Spent the Past Year Learning What Those Priorities Cost.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hold a hearing on the Fixing Emergency Management for Americans (FEMA) Act, the bipartisan bill that would remove FEMA from the Department of Homeland Security and restore it as an independent, cabinet-level agency. As the committee weighs FEMA's future, Sabotaging Our Safety is calling on members to measure every proposal against a single standard: what it means for the people waiting on help after a disaster.
Survivors already know what the current structure costs them. During the July 2025 Texas floods, hundreds of survivors were stuck in call center queues after DHS declined to renew the contracts that would have answered their calls. Disaster staff were pulled into immigration enforcement work while recovery caseloads piled up. And last week, President Trump denied $227 million in disaster aid to four states, days after pairing aid approvals for other states with campaign endorsements.
"Every question at tomorrow's hearing should start in the same place: needs of a family waiting on FEMA. Survivors don't care where the agency sits. They care whether the phone gets answered, whether the check arrives, and whether help depends on how their county voted. An independent FEMA, judged by that standard, is a promise that disaster aid answers to need and nothing else," said Sabotaging Our Safety Advisory Council member Rafael Lemaitre.
Sabotaging Our Safety has been demanding FEMA become an independent cabinet-level agency following years of incompetence and politicization that left millions facing disasters in danger. The organization continues to call for transparent data-sharing with Congress, accountability in disaster aid allocation, and an end to the diversion of FEMA resources away from their core mission of protecting Americans from disasters.
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