Shortly before a massive winter storm swept across the country, President Trump issued a new executive order extending the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Review Council through March 25, 2026. The council’s charter, filed last February, states “the Council shall terminate on January 24, 2026, unless extended by the President.” Trump’s new order merely keeps the review body active for an additional two months.

As with many recent actions by the administration, the reasoning behind the extension remains unclear. The council’s core function was to conduct a comprehensive review of FEMA and subsequently produce a detailed report on its findings. It did that. The report’s release, initially scheduled for November 2025, was postponed until December. This delay was reportedly due to disputes over the findings and accusations that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem was rewriting the document. DHS then canceled the report’s December release after a copy was leaked to CNN. 

Given that the council’s work is presumably finished, the need for a further two-month extension is confusing. The next logical step would be to release the report and its recommendations, followed by the dissolution of the council, which the administration could have done in December. Instead, the results of the reportedly finalized document have not been made public. Given the lack of an official explanation, the most likely reason for extending the council’s existence appears to be the administration’s intention to leverage its legitimacy to alter the council’s findings and further dismantle FEMA. This isn’t guesswork; Trump has said the quiet part out loud many times — both verbally and through actions.

However, there has been more action in Congress on the FEMA Act, which now has more than 50 co-sponsors — 35 Republicans and 21 Democrats — showing that fixing, not dismantling, the agency has bipartisan support. Among other things, the FEMA Act would restore FEMA to a cabinet-level agency reporting directly to the president, removing it from DHS’s control. The act would also streamline aid in various ways, such as making it easier for individuals without a fixed address (including unhoused individuals) to access housing assistance; increasing the duration of FEMA assistance for disaster-impacted households; and creating a unified disaster assistance application for all federal disaster assistance programs.  

Also, a legal complaint has been filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California by a coalition of labor organizations, nonprofit groups, and local governments. The complaint alleges that DHS’s decision to implement further cuts to FEMA’s staffing levels, starting in January, violates congressional protections. These protections were established to maintain the agency’s independence and ensure it can fulfill its mission. The complaint is a supplement to a lawsuit already filed against the administration for its reorganization and downsizing of the federal government without congressional approval.

Finally, Noem is facing calls from nongovernmental organizations, state and local government officials, and members of Congress to either resign or be impeached over not only her handling of FEMA, but also the brutal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids that have occurred all over the country and all the lives they have claimed, both American and foreign-born.

Whether by Congress or the courts, there is an opportunity to turn the situation around and save FEMA. And while Congress is once again debating during a government shutdown, at least for now, the positive development is that the debate is over DHS funding, with Democrats backing changes to ICE that would make agents’ actions more transparent. Where FEMA’s funding falls in that discussion right now is unclear, though.

Ultimately, the fate of FEMA — and the integrity of the nation’s disaster response — now rests on the outcome of a struggle between the  White House and its legislative and judicial challengers, which is really how the government is supposed to work. After a year of watching the administration steamroll over Congress, it’s nice to see a little pushback.