FEMA planning exercise envisioned deep workforce cuts, adding to uncertainty around agency’s future

By Gabe Cohen, CNN

(CNN) — Federal Emergency Management Agency leaders were told to prepare for a possible gutting of their workforce — by as much as half — in the coming months, according to an internal email sent to top FEMA officials last month.

On December 23, dozens of senior FEMA leaders received a message notifying them that the agency was launching a “workforce capacity planning exercise.” The instructions were blunt: Identify which jobs are absolutely essential to keep FEMA running, and which could be cut.

A spreadsheet attached to the message noted the goal would be to cut FEMA’s staff by more than 50% — over 11,500 jobs — by the next fiscal year, which starts in October. The email to agency leaders stressed that no final decisions about workforce reductions have been made yet, and that the exercise is just for planning.

Now, a FEMA spokesperson tells CNN that the White House and Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the agency, have not approved such steep cuts, indicating that the 50% reduction target was included in error.

“Any numerical assumptions reflected in that draft were not approved, were not adopted, and do not represent FEMA policy or leadership direction,” the spokesperson said in a statement to CNN.

While Trump administration officials haven’t landed on how much to slash FEMA’s staffing, multiple FEMA officials who asked not to be named for fear of retribution told CNN that the administration has been discussing major cuts to the agency in 2026.

The confusion over the December email highlights the growing uncertainty surrounding the increasingly messy overhaul of FEMA, marked by shifting directives from the White House and DHS.

“Imagine trying to plan for a catastrophic situation and being told you may or may not have 50 percent of your staff available,” a longtime FEMA official told CNN. “What kind of confidence does that inspire at any level?”

Last week, CNN reported that dozens of FEMA workers whose employment contracts were set to expire in early January were abruptly told they wouldn’t be renewed and would be jobless within days. The move blindsided many inside the agency, raising fears about what might happen to thousands more whose contracts end in 2026.

A DHS spokesperson insisted the early January terminations were just a “routine staff adjustment,” but the internal email shows that much bigger changes were discussed.

According to the emailed draft plan, FEMA’s permanent full-time staff would shrink by 15%, its disaster response staff would be slashed by 41%, and its surge workforce — the teams that rush in after major disasters — would be cut by 85%. Overall, the reductions would cut staff by more than half.

If cuts of that magnitude were implemented, there would likely be fewer federal boots on the ground when disaster hits. States would be left to pick up the slack, supporting survivors and navigating a complex federal aid system — which the Trump administration has also vowed to improve.

A 50% staff reduction across the agency would mirror recommendations from the special task force – known as the FEMA Review Council – that President Donald Trump set up in 2025 to help overhaul FEMA. A draft of that group’s final report, obtained exclusively last month by CNN, also called for cutting the agency’s workforce in half and moving many full-time staff out of Washington, DC, to regional offices around the country.

After CNN reported on the draft recommendations, the White House abruptly postponed the task force’s final meeting, which has yet to be rescheduled, leaving FEMA’s future uncertain. Now, DHS — which previously pushed to eliminate FEMA entirely — is signaling that neither the department nor the White House is prepared to support such drastic cuts to the agency.

All of this is part of a broader push by the Trump administration to overhaul FEMA, shrink its size and shift more responsibility for disaster response and recovery to the states. Since President Trump took office, his administration has argued that the disaster relief agency is ineffective, partisan and bloated.

But FEMA leaders warn that a dramatic downsizing would leave fewer federal workers ready to respond when disaster strikes. They note FEMA was already short more than 6,000 employees, according to a 2023 Government Accountability Office report, and thousands more left in 2025 due through layoffs and buyouts.

Inside FEMA and across the country, officials are sounding the alarm. Many warn that most states simply aren’t prepared to handle major disasters on their own. Billions in federal aid — the lifeblood of state and local emergency management operations — are already stuck in FEMA’s backlog, slowed by new bureaucratic hurdles. With the future of federal funding uncertain, some states are tightening their own budgets and laying off local emergency management staff who depend on FEMA dollars.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.