in effect
This is a presidential Executive Order (EO 14180, signed January 24, 2025) that creates a temporary advisory body called the Federal Emergency Management Agency Review Council. Its job is to study how FEMA responds to disasters and recommend improvements or structural changes to the President. It is a review-and-report directive; it does not itself reorganize or abolish FEMA.
It establishes a council of up to 20 members, co-chaired by the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of Defense, with other agency heads and outside experts appointed by the President (up to two Vice Chairs may be named from the non-government members). The council must hold its first public meeting within 90 days of the order and deliver a written report to the President within 180 days of that first meeting. That report must assess FEMA’s disaster response over the previous four years, compare it to state, local, and private-sector responses, examine how states and the federal government share disaster duties, evaluate whether FEMA should act as a support agency to states rather than take control, and analyze arguments for and against FEMA reform. The council gathers public comment and input from affected residents, researchers, businesses, and state, local, and Tribal governments; DHS supplies its funding and staff, members serve without pay (travel costs allowed), and the council automatically ends one year after the order unless the President extends it.
FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security are directly affected, since DHS staffs and funds the council and FEMA’s performance is the subject of review; other federal agencies must provide requested information. State, local, and Tribal governments, disaster-affected residents, nonprofits, and private-sector responders are invited to give input. The order creates no legally enforceable rights for any person and directs no immediate operational change to disaster aid.