Less than two weeks until the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season, Federal Emergency Management Agency acting Administrator David Richardson has rescinded the agency’s strategic plan, a comprehensive policy document that outlines the disaster relief agency’s priorities.
In a short memo sent to FEMA employees on Wednesday and obtained by CBS News, Richardson wrote, “The 2022-2026 FEMA Strategic Plan is hereby rescinded.
The Strategic Plan contains goals and objectives that bear no connection to FEMA accomplishing its mission.
One FEMA official described the strategic plan to CBS News as the agency’s “organizational backbone.”
The strategic plan, which was published in December 2021 under former administrator Deanne Criswell, was set to expire in 2026.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s strategic plan, a comprehensive policy document outlining the agency’s priorities for disaster relief, was revoked by acting Administrator David Richardson less than two weeks before the Atlantic hurricane season officially began.
According to a brief memo that Richardson sent to FEMA staff on Wednesday and that CBS News was able to obtain, “The 2022-2026 FEMA Strategic Plan is hereby rescinded.”. The Strategic Plan includes goals and objectives that are unrelated to FEMA’s mission fulfillment. A new strategy for 2026–2030 will be created this summer. The plan will directly relate to FEMA’s Mission Essential Tasks. “.”.
Richardson’s memo was brief; according to several current FEMA employees, the new agency head now mandates that all memos sent to, from, or for his office be no more than one page long.
A request for comment from CBS News was not immediately answered by FEMA.
The news that the plan was canceled was first reported by Wired.
The strategic plan, according to one FEMA official who spoke to CBS News, is the “organizational backbone” of the agency. “..”.
“Without it, there are just a bunch of offices doing whatever they feel like doing,” the official stated.
Under former administrator Deanne Criswell, the strategic plan was published in December 2021 and was scheduled to expire in 2026. The plan has been removed from the FEMA website.
“Instill Equity as a Foundation of Emergency Management,” “Lead Whole of Community in Climate Resilience,” and “Promote and Sustain a Ready FEMA and Prepared Nation” were the three primary objectives that Criswell outlined for the agency in a news release at the time the plan was released. “..”.
Richardson is currently attempting to determine how to run FEMA so that it does no more or less than what the law requires, the official reported to CBS News. The agency’s Office of Resilience Strategy was dropped as part of that.
According to the official, the office’s purpose is to determine the best way to use public funds for projects that create resilient infrastructure that can survive natural disasters. “FEMA will function as a triage agency without that compass, rather than genuinely attempting to prevent future harm before it occurs. “.”.
The official likened the elimination of the ORS to people only using ERs for medical attention instead of receiving preventative care.
“You have a disease that prevents your blood from clotting properly, which a primary care physician could have identified. You’ll bleed out and die from a paper cut if you remove the Office of Resilience Strategy from the equation because no one was there to warn you that your life was in danger in the first place,” the statement read.
The decision to revoke the strategic plan was made just over a week after a slide in an internal agency presentation stated, “FEMA is not prepared as it transitions to a smaller footprint because the intent for this hurricane season is not fully understood. “.”.
In a response, a Department of Homeland Security official told CBS News that FEMA is “fully activated in preparation for Hurricane Season,” calling the assessment “the unsubstantiated opinion of one official inside the agency and one line in a nineteen-page slide deck.”. “..”.
In addition, the presentation listed “culture issues,” staffing shortages, and difficulties coordinating with other federal agencies as challenges it was facing.
President Trump has expressed disapproval of the agency’s response to previous disasters and has proposed either eliminating FEMA completely or changing it into a “support agency” that mainly defers to the states.
Richardson has been FEMA’s acting administrator for less than two weeks. He took over from Cameron Hamilton, the agency’s previous acting head, who was fired by the Trump administration after he told lawmakers that he didn’t think it was in the “best interests” of the nation to abolish FEMA. “.”.
contributed to this report.
