President Trump on Monday nominated Cameron Hamilton, a former Navy SEAL, as administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, seeking to install the organization’s first permanent leader of the president’s second term.
If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Hamilton would rejoin the agency a year after serving a brief stint as its acting administrator. He was ousted from that role days after he testified to Congress that FEMA should not be eliminated, an idea that Mr. Trump and Kristi Noem, then the homeland security secretary, had floated early last year.
The nomination is the Trump administration’s latest step toward an overhaul of FEMA that could shift significant responsibility for disaster response back to state and local governments, though officials have backed away from eliminating the agency. A Trump-appointed FEMA task force released a set of proposals Thursday that laid out goals to limit federal disaster aid to “truly significant events” while speeding up the flow of that money to communities.
The choice is likely to face opposition from Democrats and critics of the administration’s approach to disaster response, who have cited a federal law passed after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 that requires the FEMA administrator to have experience leading disaster management.
Mr. Hamilton previously managed emergency medical technicians on the southern border as a division director in the Homeland Security Department, according to a biography posted by the Special Operations Association of America. He also worked as an emergency management specialist in the State Department “directly supporting crisis response teams and the Bureau of Counterterrorism,” according to the biography.
FEMA administrators typically have backgrounds leading emergency management agencies at the state or city level, or as regional administrators within FEMA.
Mr. Hamilton served in the U.S. Navy from 2005 through 2015, according to the special operations group. As a member of the Navy SEALs, Mr. Hamilton deployed overseas four times as part of counterterrorism missions, according to the group.
Before joining the Trump administration last year, Mr. Hamilton worked as the director of business strategy for a defense contractor, according to his LinkedIn profile, and in 2024 campaigned unsuccessfully for a seat in Congress representing Virginia. Since leaving FEMA last year, he has worked as a vice president at Longview International Technology Solutions, a company that helps government agencies in Florida and Texas respond to disasters.
Mr. Trump and Ms. Noem chose Mr. Hamilton to lead FEMA on an acting basis early in the second Trump administration as they began exploring major changes to the agency. Mr. Trump had suggested that FEMA “go away,” and has repeatedly said its work is too expensive and slow — a view shared by many emergency managers — and that states have become overly dependent upon its aid.
But when members of Congress probed Mr. Hamilton on the idea of eliminating FEMA last May, he contradicted it. “I do not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” Mr. Hamilton testified.
Scott Dance is a Times reporter who covers how climate change and extreme weather are transforming society.
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