Trump to phase out FEMA at end of 2025 hurricane season: Here’s what the agency actually does and who will feel the impact

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump said he plans to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), but interestingly, not until after this year’s 2025 hurricane season, when it will finally dismantle the nation’s key disaster relief agency.

The administration has long vowed to “eliminate” FEMA. But who will pick up the responsibility—and the pricey tab—for fighting off hurricanes and other disasters, which have only gotten worse due to climate change, which is increasing ocean and atmospheric temperatures and causing higher sea levels?

According to Trump, the answer to that question is: state governments.

“We want to bring it down to the state level,” Trump said in the Oval Office, later adding, “A governor should be able to handle it, and frankly, if they can’t handle it, the aftermath, then maybe they shouldn’t be governor.”

What does FEMA do and why is it important?

Basically, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) coordinates the federal government’s role in disaster preparation, prevention, and relief, whether that’s in response to a hurricane, major earthquake, or flood in the United States. Handling a disaster is both logistically complicated and expensive—and increasingly deadly.

FEMA is just the latest in a string of federal agencies to see massive budget and job cuts during Trump’s second term, led by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

But when it comes to FEMA, the stakes are particularly high as the country heads into this year’s fast-approaching hurricane season, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has predicted will be particularly intense, based on a number of factors including above-average water temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean.

Last year’s Atlantic hurricane season was the deadliest in nearly two decades, and quite costly; the season brought 18 named storms 11 hurricanes, five of which made landfall in the U.S., leading to hundreds of deaths—with more than 150 deaths alone from Hurricane Helene, which wreaked havoc on Florida and Georgia, and caused massive flooding and destruction to North Carolina and Tennessee. The price tag for the 2024 season is estimated at more than $190 billion, per NPR.

Without help from the federal government in the future, the question remains: Will states shoulder that burden?

Tuesday’s news comes weeks after an internal FEMA assessment said the agency “is not ready” to handle catastrophic storms this summer, which CNN reported.