GAO Finds FEMA Shed Thousands of Employees With No Workforce Plan — and Half Its Senior Executives Are Gone

The Government Accountability Office reported on Aug. 4, 2026 that FEMA reduced its workforce without basing the decisions on any analysis of current staffing or any forecast of what future disasters would require. GAO found that more than 4,300 employees separated in fiscal 2025, a 55% increase in separations over fiscal 2024, against an average workforce of about 25,134. Federal News Network reported from the same report that 58 Senior Executive Service employees — roughly half of FEMA's SES ranks — left between January 2025 and January 2026, compared with an average of 13 in each of the three prior years, and that most FEMA regions lost 9% or more of their staff versus about 5% at headquarters.

GAO also found FEMA rescinded its strategic plan in 2025, leaving the agency without the document workforce planning is normally built on. GAO had already added strengthening FEMA's disaster workforce to its High Risk List in February 2025.

GAO recommends that Congress require significant FEMA workforce decisions to be informed by workforce planning. The report is GAO-26-108427.