Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

5. Department of Homeland Security · Major · Needs Congress

Move FEMA to the Department of the Interior

Not started

134 5. Department of Homeland Security

“The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) be moved to the Department of the Interior or, if combined with CISA, to the Department of Transportation.”

What has happened

  1. Not started

    No bill, order, or reorganization plan moving FEMA to Interior (or, with CISA, to Transportation) found. The administration's own review went the other way: the FEMA Review Council created by EO 14180 delivered its final report on 2026-05-07 recommending a "locally executed, state-managed, federally supported" FEMA that stays in DHS, and never mentions Interior or Transportation. The bills in Congress go further the other way (an independent, Cabinet-level FEMA).

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • Executive Order 14180, Council To Assess the Federal Emergency Management Agency (signed 2025-01-24, 90 FR 8743), created a review council, not a transfer; continued by orders of 2026-01-23 and 2026-03-24. Its final report (DHS release 2026-05-07, https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/05/07/fema-review-council-releases-final-report; report PDF at https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2026-05/26_0507_fema%20review%20council_final%20report.pdf, 75 pages, read in full text) proposes a “locally executed, state-managed, federally supported” doctrine and program cuts; it does not mention the Department of the Interior or Transportation as a new home. Not a step toward the ask; the DHS release announcing it is now attached as Evidence on the not started event.
  • Congress is moving in the opposite direction: H.R. 2308 / S. 1246 FEMA Independence Act of 2025 (introduced 2025-03-24 / 2025-04-02) and H.R. 4669 FEMA Act of 2025 (ordered reported by House Transportation and Infrastructure 2025-09-03, 57–3) would make FEMA an independent, Cabinet-level agency. Titles and latest actions from congress.gov; texts not read. Leads, and contrary ones.
  • If a reorganization plan or bill naming Interior appears, add an attempted event.
Action
transfer
Object
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
ID
273