Congressman Greg Stanton (D-AZ), Ranking Member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management, and Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, have led a letter signed by 12 Democratic Members of Congress urging President Trump to dismiss Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Acting Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator David Richardson. The request follows a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that found FEMA violated federal law six times under Secretary Noem.
“We urge you to immediately fire Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Acting Administrator David Richardson. To serve at the highest levels of our disaster response agencies is to be entrusted with a profound privilege: protecting our nation when disaster strikes. Instead, their failures—marked by negligence and the raiding of taxpayer funds and government staff for political purposes, and efforts to cover it all up—have left communities abandoned in the face of tragedy and our nation the most vulnerable it has been to disasters since before Congress passed the Post-Katrina Emergency Response Act (PKEMRA). A new report from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) further confirms their dereliction of duty and violation of the law, underscoring the urgency of immediate action. End the waste, fraud, and abuse. Put professionals back in charge of protecting Americans,” Stanton, Pallone, and other members wrote in their letter.
The GAO report released on September 15, 2025 confirmed that FEMA withheld or delayed funds approved by Congress for shelter programs six times during Trump’s administration. The report also noted that FEMA began the 2025 hurricane season with only 12 percent of its incident management workforce available due to staffing policies implemented under Secretary Noem.
Whistleblowers within FEMA issued what they called a “Katrina Declaration,” warning that Trump appointees are undermining reforms enacted after Hurricane Katrina designed to ensure effective federal disaster response. Staff claim that hundreds of millions in FEMA funding were shifted into immigration detention facilities, billions in disaster mitigation grants were canceled, and employees who raised concerns faced retaliation.
“Alongside these failures, dedicated FEMA staff have raised the alarm through their Katrina Declaration that Secretary Noem and Acting Administrator Richardson have abandoned the lifesaving federal disaster response framework.The Trump administration has shifted hundreds of millions in FEMA funding to building immigration detention facilities, canceled billions of dollars in disaster protection grants, and sent half of FEMA’s human resources and security employees to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when they are needed during the height of hurricane season. In addition, Secretary Noem’s new rule forcing states and aid groups to deny help to undocumented survivors is both cruel and unconstitutional. Citizens and lawful residents are already getting wrongfully detained as part of Secretary Noem’s quest to fill dangerous daily deportation quotas. They will further suffer if forced to produce information which a disaster may have rendered unavailable simply to receive food and water,” wrote Stanton, Pallone, and others.
Stanton has repeatedly used his role overseeing FEMA to oppose reductions in emergency response funding as well as what he describes as illegal efforts by Secretary Noem targeting agency staffing.
Greg Stanton has won previous elections against Kelly Cooper; he secured victory in 2024 with about 53% of votes compared to Cooper’s approximately 46%, while he also won against Cooper in 2022 with roughly 56% versus 43% support.
The full letter is available online at https://stanton.house.gov/2025/9/stanton-pallone-call-on-trump-to-fire-dhs-secretary-kristi-noem-fema-head-following-blockbuster-gao-report-on-mismanagement
