The Department of Homeland Security has drafted plans to reduce FEMA's permanent staff by 15 percent, its disaster response workforce by 41 percent, and its surge capacity teams by 85 percent, which would cut the agency's total staffing by more than half, according to CNN and the Washington Post citing internal DHS documents. FEMA's workforce has already shrunk from approximately 29,000 to 23,000 employees since January 2025, and the agency started the 2025 hurricane season with just 12 percent of its incident management workforce available, according to a GAO report.
Operator takeaway
If disaster contracting fragments from one federal agency to 50 state offices, the $10 billion in annual FEMA contract obligations becomes 50 separate procurement processes — start building relationships with your state emergency management office now.