5. Department of Homeland Security · Notable
Move CISA's emergency communications and CFATS roles to FEMA
Printed page 155 5. Department of Homeland Security
“The component's emergency communications and Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) roles should be moved to FEMA; its school security functions should be transferred to state homeland security offices; and CISA should refrain from duplicating cybersecurity functions done elsewhere at the Department of Defense, FBI, National Security Agency, and U.S. Secret Service.”
What has happened
- Not started
Neither role has moved to FEMA. CISA still runs the emergency communications mission - the Emergency Communications Division's interoperability plans, training and nationwide outreach are described on CISA's own site as CISA work - and the chemical-security mission is also still CISA's, though there has been no CFATS regime to transfer since 28 July 2023, when the statutory authority for 6 CFR part 27 expired; CISA's chemical security page says it "cannot enforce compliance with the CFATS regulations at this time" and offers the voluntary ChemLock program instead. No executive order, reorganization notice or enacted provision in the window moves either function.
No action found yet. This entry is the starting point, not a finding.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
Two objects: emergency communications and CFATS.
- Emergency communications: unmoved. CISA’s emergency communications page (https://www.cisa.gov/topics/emergency-communications, read 2026-08-28) describes the mission as CISA’s.
- CFATS: there is no live program to move. Authority lapsed on 2023-07-28, before the evidence window, and Congress has not reauthorized it. CISA’s chemical security page (https://www.cisa.gov/topics/critical-infrastructure-security-and-resilience/chemical-security, read 2026-08-28) carries the lapse notice. This is not flagged Already true: the ask is a transfer to FEMA, which did not happen; the object merely stopped operating for an unrelated reason, which belongs in the note.
One negative search covered this ask with the others on pages 151–158 of Chapter 5. No Federal Register document we keep and search from the window — presidential document, rule, proposed rule or notice — was filed by CISA as an agency at all, and Public Law 119-86 section 513 bars DHS from spending appropriated funds to carry out section 872 reorganization authority without new congressional authorization - which is why every DHS internal transfer in this chapter is not started as a matter of law (see #277).
Related: #272 (p. 135) asks that CISA be moved to the Department of Transportation and is not started; #279 (p. 134) asks that CISA’s mission be narrowed and is not started.
- Checked against CISA’s own pages on 2026-09-03: nothing on this ask. CISA’s resources-and-tools pages — group, resource and program pages — can be read in full. The CSAC group and meeting-resources pages were read for #393 and carry nothing bearing on this item.
- Action
- transfer
- Object
- CISA emergency communications and CFATS roles
- ID
- 390