Trump’s pick to lead FEMA plans IT overhaul
The Federal Emergency Management Agency might undergo a major change to its IT operations if President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security unit is confirmed.
“What I will state is that some of the tools and technology that FEMA uses is a bit antiquated,” Cameron Hamilton, Trump’s pick to lead FEMA, told Senate lawmakers during a Wednesday hearing. “If confirmed, I’m planning to do a significant IT overhaul of the entire agency for better accountability.”
If confirmed, Hamilton would be the first permanent leader of FEMA in Trump’s second term. The agency has gone through four different acting administrators, including Hamilton, whose stint lasted from January-May 2025.
The instability at its helm is representative of the turmoil throughout FEMA, which has seen its net workforce contract by nearly 4,000 since 2025. More than half of those departures occurred in the first four months of 2026, according to OPM’s Federal Workforce Data website’s latest update in April.
FEMA was especially impacted by the historically long DHS shutdown earlier this year, with its operations scaled back to the bare minimum. The Trump administration has also made moves to alter FEMA’s disaster-response responsibilities and shift more of the burden to state and local levels, garnering criticism from Democrats who have concerns about the changes.
“Taken together, the Trump administration’s actions have left FEMA and communities less prepared than they have been in a generation,” Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi said in a statement in May. “If FEMA is to be functional and ready for disasters in the coming months, the Trump administration must course correct and stop playing around with the nation’s lead disaster response agency.”
FEMA’s IT department has not been immune to the waves of change. Last year, since-ousted DHS Secretary Kristi Noem publicly announced the firing of 24 FEMA IT employees, including CIO Charles Armstong and CISO Gregory Edwards. A DHS press release said FEMA’s IT department “brazenly neglected basic security protocols.”
The agency was without a top technology leader until February, when Zeke Maldonado was named acting CIO. Maldonado was previously at DHS’s headquarters level as executive director for IT operations. Prior to that, he spent a year as CIO for DHS’s intelligence office starting in August 2024.
Notably, the agency’s inspector general conducted an audit from December 2023 through March 2025 of the DHS OCIO and intelligence office’s mobile device security and management, identifying a number of problems throughout.
FEMA’s handling of technology has also been the subject of watchdog investigations. Last month, the Government Accountability Office raised concerns about the agency’s ability to produce reliable data for management decision-making and financial reporting.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Hamilton mostly focused on technology upgrades that would enable better customer service and transparency of funds.
“Right now, there’s a lot of difficulty with survivors understanding where they fall in that FEMA circle of death that I talk about with where their claim is and how it’s adjudicated,” Hamilton told lawmakers.
Trump’s pick for FEMA administrator was one of 11 nominees before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, despite Hamilton not yet going through an FBI-conducted background check.
“It is completely unprecedented for this committee to proceed to a hearing before these very fundamental vetting steps are complete,” ranking member Gary Peters, D-Mich., said in his opening remarks. “It seems like these nominees are being treated as basically just a box-checking exercise rather than a core constitutional duty.”
