what the new dhs secretary is saying about fema

The short summary would be this, “Keep FEMA, but reform it.”

More in this Guardian article, DHS secretary calls for US states to lead disaster response instead of Fema

I do think his comments that “FEMA should not be the first responder” shows his ignorance of the system that already exists. Maybe they can make some major tweaks to the agency and not screw it all up because of some “thought police” who have undo influence on how the agency should operate. FEMA already only responds to requests from the states. States generally only respond to requests from local jurisdictions. That is the system as it exists today.

And, we are never going to have a DHS Secretary who is an expert in emergency management when they come to the position (OK, I’ll agree Pete Gayner had the qualifications at the time he was the acting DHS Secretary). That was for a very short period of time at the end of the first Trump Administration.