Well, for years, there's been a debate over what role FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, should play when disaster strikes American communities.

President Trump argues that states should shoulder much more of the responsibility, and now a review council appointed by the president is making new recommendations.

Our William Brangham has more.

That's right, Omna, this review council made a series of recommendations that would reform

the essential mission of FEMA. Among the proposed changes, states would take the lead role

in disaster assistance within their own borders while FEMA shifts to a supporting secondary role.

It recommends changes in how immediate assistance is delivered. That's the aid given out in the first hours and days following a disaster.

And establishing new metrics to measure how states perform. Those metrics could then affect how much money a state receives from the

federal government. And it recommends streamlining direct individual assistance, often for housing,

and to focus FEMA's efforts on emergency and temporary housing instead of long-term housing help.

The new DHS secretary, Mark Wayne Mullen, made his priorities clear during a trip to North Carolina last month.

When we're looking at reform, the President wants to, like I said, we want to make sure we

get it to the state faster and not look at FEMA as being the first responder, but look at FEMA as supporting the first responders.

If implemented, the council's recommendations would amount to the biggest overhaul of FEMA in many years.

So for more on this, we are joined again by someone who has had to wrestle with these exact issues.

Deanne Criswell was the head of FEMA for four years under the Biden administration and now

helps states and cities plan for disasters.

Dian Criswell, thank you so much for being back here.

Could you just give me your initial reaction to this set of recommendations?

William, I haven't had a chance to fully read the whole document yet, but I did read the

slides that were put out and some of the feedback that I've gotten from others.

And it doesn't look like much has changed from the December report.

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