California Democrat signal openness to FEMA overhaul under Trump

Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.) signaled he's to open to overhauling the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) under President Trump as the agency has faced increased criticism over its recent handling of disaster response efforts.

“On the basic premise that emergencies are best handled at the local level, state level, because they know the community is the best that you know I can get behind 100 percent,” Bera, who represents California's 6th Congressional District, said during his Friday appearance on NewsNation’s “The Hill.”

Bera's comments come as Trump visited both North Carolina and California after hurricanes Helene and Milton devastated western parts of the Tar Heel State and amid the ongoing wildfires that have burned thousands of acres in his home state.

“Obviously, we'll need some federal help with big disasters — North Carolina. We need to help. How do you get those resources more quickly to the governor, to the counties and local governors, governments? I'm open to that conversation. We should figure this out, because we're also seeing bigger disasters,” he told NewsNation host Blake Burman.

“So there has to be a better mechanism,” Bera said. “And then how do we build back in a better way that's more resilient? What does that look like? So I think we should talk about all of that.”

Trump, who has previously criticized FEMA, teased during his stop in North Carolina that he might be signing an executive that could overhaul the agency or disband it entirely.

“I’ll also be signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA or maybe getting rid of FEMA. I think, frankly, FEMA’s not good,” Trump said on Friday.

“I think when you have a problem like this, I think you want to go and — whether it’s a Democrat or Republican governor — you want to use your state to fix it and not waste time calling FEMA, and then FEMA gets here and they don’t know the area, they’ve never been to the area,” he added.

After North Carolina, the president traveled to California where he was warmly welcomed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) despite the two officials exchanging barbs just days earlier over the state’s response to the Los Angeles wildfires that have killed at least 28 people and prompted thousands to evacuate.

North Carolina Rep. Chuck Edwards (R), whose district has been significantly damaged after Helene, argued that FEMA should have some presence in Washington, but agreed with Trump that the relief aid during natural disasters should be directed to the state’s governors.

“I think that when we really sit down and start to put this on a whiteboard, we're going to realize that there are needs for some personnel in Washington, DC with FEMA, but we don't need 20,000 folks there to fail the people that they are serving,” Edwards said Friday on NewsNation. “I believe we should send the relief money to the states and leave it up to the governors to decide what is best to help their state recover.”

Edwards said earlier this month that FEMA needs to be revamped.

“That is an organization that clearly needs to be overhauled, and I’m anxious to be a part of that after January 20,” he said in mid-January.

NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group which also owns The Hill.

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