The long-awaited public meeting of the FEMA Review Council was abruptly canceled on Thursday, delaying the unveiling of a reform blueprint that the Trump administration has been developing for months. The council—created by an executive order earlier this year and tasked with recommending major changes to the Federal Emergency Management Agency—had been scheduled to release its final report during an afternoon session open to virtual public attendance. Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem, who co-chairs the panel, even left a congressional hearing early to attend. But the gathering was called off at the last minute, with notifications going out nearly two hours after the scheduled start time. According to individuals familiar with the situation, senior White House officials had not yet been fully briefed on the latest version of the report, prompting the administration to halt the meeting until they could review the material. Participants were told a new date would be announced as soon as possible, although no replacement schedule was immediately provided.
The postponement adds another layer of confusion to a process that has grown increasingly contentious. Early drafts of the council’s report reportedly exceeded 160 pages, reflecting extensive outreach to emergency managers, state officials, and community representatives. But Noem’s office later reduced the document to roughly 20 pages, raising concerns among some council members that significant recommendations might be removed and new material not agreed upon by the group might be inserted. The council—composed largely of officials from Republican-led states, including the governors of Texas, Florida, and Virginia—had planned to vote on the reform package Thursday, after which the public would have been given until December 31 to comment. Trump has repeatedly signaled that he wants to dramatically reshape FEMA, even suggesting earlier this year that he might eliminate the agency entirely and shift more responsibility to the states following his tour of hurricane damage in North Carolina. If adopted, some of the council’s proposed reforms could be implemented directly by the administration, while others would require congressional approval, leaving the ultimate direction of the federal disaster-response system uncertain as the council’s final report remains temporarily stalled.