The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster command center, who coordinates the national response to earthquakes, floods and other disasters, has submitted his resignation, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Jeremy Greenberg resigned as the top official at FEMA’s National Response Coordination Center on Wednesday, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the mater publicly.
His resignation came after other senior staff members have left and a day after President Trump said he would wind down the federal agency by November.
“We want to wean off of FEMA and we want to bring it down to the state level,” Mr. Trump said on Tuesday during a news briefing in the Oval Office. “We think after the hurricane season we’ll start phasing it out.”
Mr. Trump also warned states to expect “less money” from the federal government for disaster recovery. And, he said, the money would come directly from the president’s office.
That would be a substantial change from the current system, under which FEMA vets applications from states, localities and individuals for grants and direct payments to recover from disasters.
If a state gets hit by a hurricane or other extreme weather, “the governor should be able to handle it,” Mr. Trump said. “And frankly, if they can’t handle it, the aftermath, then maybe they shouldn’t be governor.”
The National Response Coordination Center is considered FEMA’s 24-hour war room, where planning for responses to disasters occurs. It coordinates the federal, state and local responses, handling things like the deployment of search and rescue teams, assisting hospitals that have to evacuate, and shipping food and water to emergency sites.
The center’s management is particularly critical now during Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1 and is expected to be above average, with a prediction of 17 named storms. Summer and fall are the most challenging seasons for FEMA because of hurricanes, wildfires and other threats.
Mr. Greenberg, who gave two weeks’ notice, did not respond to a request for comment. The FEMA media office issued a statement saying it “recognizes the departure of several employees who have played a part in the operation of FEMA under its former focus,” but did not mention Mr. Greenberg by name.
The statement said the agency has “the right leadership in place to remain focused on our mission” and that FEMA is “fully prepared for Hurricane season.”
Mr. Greenberg’s resignation was first reported by CBS News.
FEMA deploys staff members to disaster areas across the country to support recovery efforts. But in recent months, agency employees, as well as the state and local authorities, have expressed concerns that staff reductions are already endangering the government’s ability to do its job.
Since the start of the Trump administration, FEMA has lost about a quarter of its full-time staff, according to a former senior official. Last month, the head of FEMA was dismissed, and several senior officials have left, including MaryAnn Tierney, who was second-in-command.
“I will not be complicit in the dismantling of this agency, and while I would implement change — even radical change — the current approach lacks a clear end state or plan, and has been done recklessly without regard to our current statutory or moral obligations to the American people,” Ms. Tierney wrote in a recent message to agency staff that was shared with The New York Times.
The departures came after pressure from the Department of Government Efficiency, previously led by Elon Musk, for large-scale forced resignations of federal workers.
The cuts have meant fewer meteorologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which critics fear could lead to less accurate forecasts; and the loss of one-fifth of the coordinating officers at FEMA, who manage responses to major disasters.
It has also meant delays and other problems for states hit by disasters, with some waiting as long as two months for FEMA to approve requests to declare a disaster.
Senator Martin Heinrich, Democrat of New Mexico, said in an interview he did not believe the Trump administration had any sort of plan when it comes to FEMA.
“It’s clear that states are on their own now,” Mr. Heinrich said. “I don’t think there’s much capacity at FEMA right now, and that concerns me greatly. It’s one thing to say ‘We need to do things a much better way.’ But what they’re saying is ‘If you get hit by a hurricane, or a tornado or a wildfire, you’re on your own.’”
Several experts said Mr. Trump’s warning about changes to disaster aid would entrench the politicization of disaster aid. Already, Mr. Trump has openly threatened to withhold disaster relief to states led by political rivals, such as California.
Andrew Morris, a historian at Union College in New York who studies disaster relief and social safety nets, said politics had always played a part disaster relief.
“But the sense that there is a partisan test to whether or not you get disaster relief, and the possibility of denying disaster relief on whether or not you’re aligned with the president’s agenda, that’s something that’s new and definitely troublesome,” Dr. Morris said.
Mr. Trump has established the FEMA Review Council, which Kristi Noem, the secretary of the Department Homeland Security is leading along with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The council is expected to submit recommendations in the coming months about “reforms and what FEMA will look like in the future as a different agency,” Ms. Noem said at the Oval Office briefing.
She argued the changes would “empower governors to go out and respond” to emergencies. FEMA, she said, “has failed thousands, if not millions, of people, and President Trump does not want to see that continue into the future.”
States already bear significant costs when it comes to disaster recovery. FEMA’s traditional role has been to provide additional support and resources to states when disasters exceed their capacity.
Lisa Friedman is a Times reporter who writes about how governments are addressing climate change and the effects of those policies on communities.
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