The Senate on Friday confirmed Cameron Hamilton as head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, returning the former Navy SEAL to the embattled agency he led temporarily last year only to be fired after he publicly opposed eliminating it.Hamilton was among a group of 74 nominations approved by the Senate, including President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Transportation Security Administration, David Cummins, and his choice for ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Perez.Upon his swearing in, Hamilton will take over an agency whose future has been uncertain since Trump threatened to get rid of it days into his second term. Hamilton’s nomination signaled that Trump may be moving on from that idea, but his Republican administration is still promising drastic changes in how the government handles disasters.Hamilton will have to shepherd that overhaul while stabilizing an agency of more than 20,000 employees recovering from Kristi Noem’s chaotic tenure as Department of Homeland Security secretary, during which FEMA saw mass staff departures, disruptions to grant programs and delays of disaster aid.
While her successor, former Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, has worked to reverse some of the upheaval, Democrats are accusing Trump of politicizing disaster relief. Trump has approved 80% of disaster requests from Republican governors but only about 60% from Democratic governors, a July analysis by The Associated Press found.In his June hearing before a Senate committee, Hamilton pledged to advocate for FEMA and its workforce while promising to ensure FEMA is “objective, is fair and reasonable, follows the law, and is consistent in the approach to how we adjudicate and process claims and requests for disasters.”He also maintained that the agency is burdened by bureaucracy and cannot be expected to respond to every disaster. “We would need to strike a new balance to encourage cost reasonableness and cost savings,” he said.
