GAO warns FEMA workforce cuts jeopardize disaster response readiness

The Government Accountability Office reports that the Federal Emergency Management Agency reduced its workforce in fiscal year 2025 without using a strategic workforce planning process, creating a risk to the agency's core disaster response mission. GAO's findings bind FEMA and Congress, which the agency must address through forthcoming actions.

In FY2025 FEMA employed about 25,134 employees on average, yet more than 4,300 employees separated from the agency - a 55 percent increase in separations from FY2024. Agency officials say the departures have eroded institutional knowledge and intensified long-standing staffing challenges.

During the same year FEMA rescinded its strategic plan, leaving the agency without an overarching direction to guide workforce analysis. GAO determined that FEMA's 2025 and 2026 workforce reduction decisions, as well as proposed future actions, were not based on a workforce analysis that assesses current conditions and forecasts future requirements. Consequently, FEMA cannot reliably determine whether it has the right number of personnel with the appropriate skills to meet statutory obligations.

GAO recommends that Congress require significant FEMA workforce decisions to be informed by the agency's workforce planning process and that FEMA report the results of that process to Congress before each hurricane season. For FEMA, GAO urges the Administrator to issue a strategic plan with clear goals, develop and implement a workforce planning process that includes a workforce analysis consistent with OPM's guide, and ensure the annual staffing plan required by Executive Order 14356 reflects that analysis. The Department of Homeland Security has agreed with the recommendations.

FEMA was added to GAO's High-Risk List in February 2025, underscoring the need for heightened oversight to ensure the agency maintains a workforce capable of meeting its disaster response and recovery responsibilities.