Senate confirms Hamilton to lead FEMA and clears more than 70 other
Trump nominees
[August 08, 2026]
By GABRIELA AOUN ANGUEIRA
The Senate on Friday confirmed Cameron Hamilton as head of the Federal
Emergency Management Agency, returning the former Navy SEAL to the
embattled agency he led temporarily last year only to be fired after he
publicly opposed eliminating it.
Hamilton was among a group of 74 nominations approved by the Senate,
including President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Transportation
Security Administration, David Cummins, and his choice for ambassador to
Brazil, Daniel Perez.
Upon his swearing in, Hamilton will take over an agency whose future has
been uncertain since Trump threatened to get rid of it days into his
second term. Hamilton's nomination signaled that Trump may be moving on
from that idea, but his Republican administration is still promising
drastic changes in how the government handles disasters.
Hamilton will have to shepherd that overhaul while stabilizing an agency
of more than 20,000 employees recovering from Kristi Noem's chaotic
tenure as Department of Homeland Security secretary, during which FEMA
saw mass staff departures, disruptions to grant programs and delays of
disaster aid.
While her successor, former Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, has worked
to reverse some of the upheaval, Democrats are accusing Trump of
politicizing disaster relief. Trump has approved 80% of disaster
requests from Republican governors but only about 60% from Democratic
governors, a July analysis by The Associated Press found.
In his June hearing before a Senate committee, Hamilton pledged to
advocate for FEMA and its workforce while promising to ensure FEMA is
“objective, is fair and reasonable, follows the law, and is consistent
in the approach to how we adjudicate and process claims and requests for
disasters.”
He also maintained that the agency is burdened by bureaucracy and cannot
be expected to respond to every disaster. “We would need to strike a new
balance to encourage cost reasonableness and cost savings,” he said.
Hamilton was fired from a temporary role leading FEMA
Hamilton had limited emergency management experience before Trump named
him FEMA's temporary leader in January 2025. Formerly a critic of the
agency, Hamilton has said he came to appreciate FEMA's mission. His
tenure proved short after he broke with Noem and other DHS officials
over FEMA's future.
“I do not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to
eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” Hamilton told a
House panel in May 2025. He was fired the next day.
His stand drew admiration among some emergency management professionals.
“It tells you exactly who he is and how he will lead when the pressure
is highest and the easy answer is the wrong one,” Pete Gaynor, FEMA
administrator in Trump's first term, said in a statement supporting
Hamilton's confirmation.
The National Emergency Management Association said it welcomes Hamilton
as the FEMA administrator.
Still, some FEMA staffers have remained wary of Hamilton’s role in
controversial decisions last year like canceling a multibillion-dollar
resilience grant program.
FEMA has been an agency under siege
Hamilton will take over in the middle of a busy summer disaster season
that has already brought destructive wildfires and dangerous flooding
and as FEMA manages more than 1,000 open disaster declarations. He will
be FEMA’s first permanent administrator in Trump’s second term,
overseeing an agency eager for stability.
More than 4,300 employees separated from FEMA in the 2025 budget year,
more than 1,500 through voluntary reductions, resulting in a “loss of
institutional knowledge and experienced personnel,” according to a
Government Accountability Office report.
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Cameron Hamilton testifies during a hearing to examine his
nomination to be Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management
Agency, June 17, 2026, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam
Zuhaib, File)
Since replacing Noem in March, Mullin has rehired for some
eliminated positions and rescinded a rule that any expense greater
than $100,000 needed to be approved by the secretary’s office — a
requirement that backlogged billions of dollars in disaster aid.
But DHS has also introduced policies stirring up new controversy.
Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia sued the Trump
administration last month over new election security requirements in
FEMA counterterrorism grants to states.
The Trump administration and lawmakers are advocating for sweeping
changes to federal disaster response. At a meeting of governors last
weekend, Mullin called FEMA “bloated.”
“The biggest reform you’re going to see is more responsibility is
going to go back to your states,” Mullin said, with “FEMA there for
worst of the worst, not every storm.”
In May, a Trump-appointed FEMA Review Council recommended major
changes to how the federal government supports states, tribes and
territories during disasters. That could speed assistance but might
reduce how much and how often FEMA helps. Many of the suggested
changes require congressional action.
Gaynor told the AP he expects that Hamilton will work quickly to
make changes within his authority. “I think his biggest priority in
general is making the whole recovery system simpler for disaster
survivors, for states and locals to navigate, to make it less of
mystery, and cut out red tape,” Gaynor said.
Senate approves 74 nominations, including for airport security
Other nominees confirmed included Cummins as head of the
Transportation Security Administration, an agency also facing
persistent challenges, particularly after this year’s record partial
government shutdown left TSA employees working for weeks without
pay. The funding lapse prompted thousands of officers to call out of
work and about 1,100 to quit.
Cummins is a former senior vice president at the government
contractor Serco, which runs air traffic control towers at 60
American airports. He is taking over as the Trump administration
seeks to expand private airport screening and cut thousands of TSA
jobs.
The Senate also confirmed Perez, a close friend of Secretary of
State Marco Rubio and a former speaker of Florida’s House of
Representatives, to be the next U.S. ambassador to Brazil.
Perez has been central to an ongoing diplomatic dispute between the
Trump administration and the government of Brazilian President Luiz
Inácio Lula da Silva.
Earlier this week, the State Department said the Brazilian
government’s refusal to accept Perez’s appointment was a main reason
for its decision to revoke the visa of Brazil’s ambassador to the
United States. International diplomatic protocols demand that host
countries approve any foreign ambassadors before they can take their
posts.
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Associated Press writers Rio Yamat in Las Vegas; Josh Funk in Omaha,
Neb.; and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
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