Garbarino: No 'rubber stamp' if Trump proposes big FEMA cuts

WASHINGTON — Long Island GOP Rep. Andrew Garbarino said he won’t be a "rubber stamp" for actions that gut or undermine the work of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which falls under the oversight of a House panel he leads.

President Donald Trump has assembled a council to overhaul the agency, which since 1979 has helped New York and other states cope with natural disasters and man-made emergencies. Decisions are to be finalized by late March.

But Garbarino, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, insisted in an interview with Newsday that allegiance to political party or Trump won't play a part in evaluating the plan.

"I'll look at what they come up with," Garbarino (R-Bayport) said. "If I don't think it makes sense, I'm going tell them I don't think it makes sense."

FEMA employs more than 20,000 people nationwide and has had a critical role on Long Island, coordinating with state and local officials during flooding and other disasters, notably after Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

Since FEMA's creation during the administration of former President Jimmy Carter, it has been the lead federal agency in preparing for, responding to and recovering from disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, wildfires, as well as terrorism and other emergencies.

But Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has been a big critic of the agency since taking her cabinet post last year, and underscored what she has said is a need to streamline disaster response operations, cut red tape and shift more responsibility to the states. Echoing Trump, she even talked early on about completely dissolving the agency, which is in her department.

"We’re going to eliminate FEMA," Noem said aloud during a cabinet meeting in March.

But in the year since, discussion about outright eliminating FEMA has shifted to a special FEMA review council delegated by Trump to come up with recommendations on how the agency and its mission could or should be reduced and restructured.

The finalized recommendations were to come out in November, then December. This week, Trump extended the panel’s work to March 25.

Uncertain outcome

There have been accusations that Noem has been rewriting the panel’s initial ideas. She has also already been implementing processes and procedures that some say have exacerbated sluggish FEMA operations, including delays in disaster funding reimbursements.

Garbarino’s congressional committee, in fact, has launched an investigation into why $1 billion in delinquent FEMA COVID-19 disaster reimbursements, owed to hospital systems on Long Island and elsewhere in New York, sit on Noem’s desk despite making it through the usual approval processes.

What Trump and his administration will ultimately to do with FEMA remains uncertain.

But some purported details have spilled out. Those have come in court filings, in an early draft of the council’s recommendations and in internal FEMA communications describing workforce reductions and redirections commenced or being considered under Noem.

For instance, FEMA officials already have been directed to reduce the size of the agency by at least half, with job terminations that began on Dec. 1, 2024, "and over 10,000 positions to be eliminated in the coming months," alleges a complaint in federal court in California by a coalition of labor organizations, nonprofit groups and local governments.

Other proposals purportedly would range from reducing the number of disaster declarations to raising the bar for states to qualify for federal assistance, to even rebranding the name of the stripped-down agency.

FEMA also would be kept under the Department of Homeland Security, not reestablished as a stand-alone cabinet-level agency as some critics have advocated.

A FEMA statement provided by a spokesperson to Newsday said the agency continues to review "certain term and temporary workforce programs" along with statutory intent and need "while maintaining full operational readiness for disaster response and recovery missions nationwide."

"There is no directive to reduce the agency’s workforce by 50%, and no such target has been approved by DHS or the White House," the statement said.

But critics are already warning of potentially disastrous outcomes.

Some of these proposals "would really be putting a challenge to the future of responding to disasters," said Shana Udvardy, an analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists. That group has already called for Noem’s resignation, in part because of her "reckless undermining of FEMA" and efforts "to politicize disaster aid."

As climate change magnifies, she said FEMA instead needs to be fully staffed and funded for the people who end up in harm’s way.

"The impacts will be felt," Udvardy said, "by those who can least afford it, and people who are at high risk of being hurt first and worst by disasters."

Committee's oversight

It is uncertain how much authority the Trump administration has to implement  the review council’s recommendations without congressional approval, given that the agency is authorized in statute.

Congress already has seen Trump expand interpretations of executive authority to slash parts of the federal workforce and make other unilateral moves in ways some critics say infringe on Congress’ power.

In this case, there are already signs of congressional pushback.

Democrats on Garbarino's committee have requested that auditors at the Government Accountability Office look into planned FEMA workforce reductions and the potential impacts of those on the agency’s ability to carry out its sometimes lifesaving missions.

And on Wednesday, ranking member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and New York Rep. Tim Kennedy (D-Buffalo) introduced a resolution for Congress to ensure a "stable, adequately resourced FEMA workforce."

In the Homeland Security spending bill before Congress, lawmakers have designated about $32 billion for FEMA — an overall increase by lawmakers of about $4.7 billion over 2025 levels, even as Noem and Trump talk about shrinking the agency.

Garbarino said he believes instituting sweeping changes to FEMA would require congressional action, including by his committee. But he said he has yet to officially receive word of what the administration will propose.

"I will tell you I am very much looking forward to the review council's report, or whatever the hell they release," Garbarino said during the interview.

"I'm willing to look at what their people come up with," he said, but added, "I'm not just going to say yes or no off the bat."