President Donald Trump plans to nominate Cameron Hamilton as FEMA’s permanent administrator, a move that would put a former acting chief who was fired after opposing efforts to dismantle the agency back at the center of the federal disaster response system. Trump offered Hamilton the job on Wednesday.
If confirmed, Hamilton would become the principal adviser to the president and the Homeland Security secretary on all matters related to emergency management. FEMA has lacked a permanent administrator throughout Trump’s second term and is now on its third temporary leader, leaving the emergency management agency under constant interim control as the White House pushes a major reset.
The nomination is notable because Hamilton was FEMA’s acting leader from January to May of last year, then lost the job one day after telling a House Appropriations subcommittee that he did not believe it was in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In a September episode of the podcast “Disaster Tough,” he said his relationship with DHS officials became “very hostile” during his short tenure.
Hamilton also said on that podcast that he wanted to cut “wasteful spending” and “downsize the agency,” but not dismantle it. That stance put him at odds with administration figures who have called for far more sweeping change. Kristi Noem has vowed to “eliminate FEMA as it exists today,” while Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has voiced support for the agency even as he called for reforms.
Trump has said he wants to shift more responsibility for disasters to states, and he has created a FEMA Review Council expected to propose broad changes to how the agency helps disaster-hit communities. first reported his intent to nominate Hamilton.
Hamilton could still face resistance in the Senate. He has never served as a state emergency management director, and federal law says the FEMA administrator must have “a demonstrated ability in and knowledge of emergency management and homeland security” along with at least five years of executive leadership and management experience.
Hamilton spent a decade in the U.S. Navy Seals, served on Seal Team Eight for four overseas deployments between 2005 and 2015, later worked as a supervisory emergency management specialist at the U.S. State Department and served for several years as the Department of Homeland Security’s director of emergency services. That background gives him operational experience, but not the state-level emergency management résumé that lawmakers may look for as the administration tries to remake FEMA without breaking it.
The confirmation fight, if it comes, will test how far Trump can go in reshaping the agency while still keeping a figure inside it who once told Congress he would not help eliminate it.