The Department of Homeland Security has launched a new investigation into the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The probe revives accusations of political bias already been debunked by multiple internal investigations.
Ordered by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, the new investigation claims to have uncovered “systematic political discrimination” by FEMA officials during the Biden administration. But current and former FEMA leaders say the report distorts isolated incidents into a narrative meant to justify President Donald Trump’s long-promised plan to dismantle the agency.
“This is about power, not performance,” said one former FEMA official who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation. “They’re trying to paint us as corrupt so they can break the agency down and rebuild it in their own image.”
The controversy dates back to Hurricane Helene in 2024, when Trump—then a candidate—claimed that FEMA withheld disaster aid from Republican areas and redirected funds to undocumented immigrants. Those claims were false, but they fueled mistrust and even threats against FEMA workers.
After Trump’s election, an investigation launched under President Biden cleared FEMA of wrongdoing. It found one supervisor, Marn’i Washington, had acted improperly when she told her team to avoid homes with Trump signs in Florida. Washington was fired, and FEMA publicly condemned her actions as “illegal and unacceptable.” The agency’s inspector general later concluded there was no evidence of systemic discrimination or political bias.
But Noem and Trump weren’t satisfied. Within weeks of taking office, they ordered a new DHS investigation that came to a far different conclusion. Noem’s report, released last week, alleges that FEMA employees “intentionally delayed much-needed aid to Americans suffering from natural disasters on purely political grounds.”
The evidence, however, is thin. Out of tens of thousands of field reports reviewed, investigators found about 100 cases where canvassers mentioned “political beliefs,” mostly noting the presence of gun or campaign signs for safety reasons. Only a handful referenced Trump or Biden. The report does not show that disaster survivors were denied assistance because of these notes.
Still, Noem called the findings “textbook political discrimination” and referred the matter to the Justice Department, saying the agency had been “weaponized against conservatives.”
Inside FEMA, morale has plummeted. More than a quarter of its full-time staff has reportedly left under the new administration amid what insiders describe as “political purges” and mass firings of career officials.
Former FEMA chief of staff Michael Coen, who served under both Democratic and Republican presidents, called the new report “a stretch.” “When you’re talking about tens of thousands of homes, finding a few hundred notes that mention politics doesn’t prove systematic bias,” he said. “It proves that field workers were trying to stay safe in hostile conditions.”
Those conditions were partly created by Trump’s rhetoric. After Hurricane Helene, FEMA teams in North Carolina and Florida reported harassment from residents who had heard the president’s false claims that aid was being denied to Trump supporters.
Now, FEMA faces renewed political scrutiny just as hurricane season approaches. Noem has said her goal is to “eliminate FEMA as it exists today,” replacing it with what she calls a “leaner, more accountable system.”
For those who’ve spent their careers helping people through the worst moments of their lives, the effort feels less like reform and more like retribution.
“It’s dangerous,” Coen said. “If people stop trusting FEMA, they stop calling for help. And when that happens — when Americans in disaster zones believe the government has turned its back on them — the damage goes far beyond politics.”
