{"id":1656214,"date":"2026-01-02T08:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T13:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/?p=1656214"},"modified":"2026-01-02T08:30:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T13:30:21","slug":"dhs-begins-slashing-fema-disaster-response-staff-as-2026-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/news\/us-world\/dhs-begins-slashing-fema-disaster-response-staff-as-2026-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"DHS begins slashing FEMA disaster response staff as 2026 begins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(CNN) \u2014\u00a0<\/strong>The Trump administration is abruptly cutting dozens of staff who are at the forefront of disaster response and recovery at the\u00a0Federal Emergency Management Agency\u00a0this week, according to internal emails obtained by CNN and sources familiar with the plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On New Year\u2019s Eve, some employees received emails saying their positions \u201cwould not be renewed\u201d and \u201ctherefore, your services will no longer be needed\u201d after their contracts expire in the first days of January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cuts target FEMA\u2019s Cadre of On-Call Response and Recovery (CORE) teams, which form the backbone of the agency\u2019s operations during and after a disaster, and could be just the beginning of a larger effort by Secretary Kristi Noem and the Department of Homeland Security to shrink FEMA, potentially axing thousands of workers in the coming months who deploy during hurricanes, wildfires and other national emergencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to two sources with knowledge of the terminations, which suddenly ousted roughly 50 CORE staff, the decision came from FEMA\u2019s new acting chief Karen Evans \u2014 who was\u00a0elevated to the role by DHS leadership\u00a0after the embattled previous agency head resigned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The notices stunned employees, who learned they would be let go within days. \u201cBeyond cruel to be treated in such a way,\u201d one of the workers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FEMA\u2019s CORE employees are among the first federal boots on the ground during a disaster, working shoulder-to-shoulder with local officials, helping survivors and managing the crucial aid and grants that fuel recovery and rebuilding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFEMA can\u2019t do disaster response and recovery without CORE employees,\u201d a former senior FEMA official told CNN. \u201cThe regional offices are almost entirely CORE staff, so the first FEMA people who are usually onsite won\u2019t be there. The impact is states are on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, DHS, which oversees FEMA, hasn\u2019t given the agency much guidance about what comes next, leaving employees anxious about more cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A DHS spokesperson denied that the department has implemented any new policy for these workers and did not address questions about this week\u2019s abrupt terminations or the department\u2019s broader plans to downsize the agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe CORE program consists of term-limited positions that are designed to fluctuate based on disaster activity, operational need, and available funding,\u201d the spokesperson said in a statement to CNN. \u201cCORE appointments have always been subject to end-of-term decisions consistent with that structure and there has been no change to policy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several sources told CNN that DHS has been considering letting more contracts expire as part of a push to downsize the agency, though officials have wavered on how deep the cuts will go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CORE employees make up about 40% of FEMA\u2019s workforce \u2014 over 8,000 people \u2014 working full-time hours on temporary contracts. Several thousand of these workers will see their contracts end in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditionally, CORE workers have served on two-to-four-year contracts that were almost always renewed. In 2025, DHS limited FEMA to renewing these contracts for just 180 days at a time while they considered a long-term plan to shrink the agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of January 1, DHS revoked FEMA\u2019s authority to renew those employees without approval from Homeland Security officials, according to internal documents obtained by CNN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, DHS is instructing FEMA to let at least some of those contracts lapse, forcing employees to depart as their terms expire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under President Donald Trump\u2019s second administration, DHS has argued for the past year that FEMA is bloated, despite a 2023\u202fGovernment Accountability Office report<\/a>\u202fthat found the agency was facing a staffing shortfall of more than 6,000 employees\u2014about 35% below its target level. Thousands of FEMA\u2019s staff of about 25,000 left in 2025 due to layoffs and buyouts, deepening the shortage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest cuts to CORE are part of a broader Trump administration effort to overhaul FEMA, shrink its footprint and shift more responsibility for disaster response to the states. A task force appointed by the administration \u2013 known as the FEMA Review Council \u2013 is expected to soon release sweeping recommendations, including\u202fa proposal to cut the agency\u2019s workforce in half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But after CNN exclusively obtained a draft of the recommendations this month, the\u202fWhite House abruptly postponed\u202fthe task force\u2019s final meeting, leaving FEMA\u2019s future in limbo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside FEMA and across the country, officials are sounding the alarm about the administration\u2019s plan, warning that most states simply aren\u2019t equipped to handle major disasters on their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Billions in federal funding for communities nationwide remain stuck in FEMA\u2019s backlog, largely because of bureaucratic hurdles imposed by Trump\u2019s DHS. With the future of federal funding up in the air, some states are already tightening their own budgets and laying off local emergency management staff whose departments rely on money from FEMA to brace for the impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FEMA Review Council is expected to recommend moving some agency staff out of Washington, DC, and into other parts of the country \u2014 a move that could help fill some gaps if the CORE workforce is slashed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, it likely means fewer federal boots on the ground when disaster strikes, leaving states with more responsibility for supporting survivors and navigating access to the federal resources that are still available \u2014 a bureaucratic process the Trump administration has vowed to improve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(CNN) \u2014\u00a0The Trump administration is abruptly cutting dozens of staff who are at the forefront of disaster response and recovery at the\u00a0Federal Emergency Management Agency\u00a0thisRead More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":188962060,"featured_media":1656215,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-01-02T13:30:20Z","apple_news_api_id":"4fc0c4be-2bdf-4b1f-a234-49106979c196","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-01-02T13:30:21Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AT8DEvivfSx-iNEkQaXnBlg","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_speedyseo_primary_category":"","_sunbeam_story_id":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1381],"tags":[1415],"coauthors":[2160],"class_list":["post-1656214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-world","tag-video","sunbeam-copyright-cnn-wire"],"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/01\/260102_FEMA_cuts.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1656214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/188962060"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1656214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1656214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1656216,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1656214\/revisions\/1656216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1656215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1656214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1656214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1656214"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1656214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}