Since President Donald Trump took office, few federal agencies have avoided his crosshairs.

But the Federal Emergency Management Agency faces one of the most uncertain futures.

During a cabinet meeting in March, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Trump, “We’re going to eliminate FEMA.”

And during his visit to North Carolina in January, Trump said, “I think we’re going to recommend that FEMA go away, and we pay a percentage to the state.”

Many officials say FEMA should be reformed.

“FEMA is imperfect. We all know that,” North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, told Spectrum News. “We’ve all had our own frustrations with dealing with FEMA… It needs to be more agile in getting money to communities quicker.”

“Have better communications so that people can understand what FEMA can and cannot do, have unified applications so that when you’re applying to FEMA, it will also to apply to the Small Business Administration,” he said.

National Emergency Management Association President Lynn Budd said: “Reducing the complexity of FEMA so we can make things happen, specifically with mitigation that comes after disasters.”

But getting rid of FEMA is something much more controversial, as officials warn there needs to be some sort of federal body in place.

“If we lost FEMA, it would be a real problem,” Stein said. “We don’t have a means as a state to get individual assistance to homeowners… immediately after the storm so they can go to a hotel, or they can go buy groceries or buy clothes to replace those lost in a storm. These are things the federal government has done, and we need them to continue to do.”

“We need a core group of folks in Washington, D.C., to consult with states with matters they may not be familiar with,” said Rep. Chuck Edwards, a North Carolina Republican. “Whether that’s called FEMA, or whether it’s called something else, we need that core group of experienced consultants.”

The future of FEMA could fall in the hands of the president’s FEMA Review Council.

On Monday the president announced the council’s members. The list included Republican governors Greg Abbott of Texas and Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, Democratic Tampa Mayor Jane Castor and a former FEMA official.

The announcement came late, given the executive order Trump signed in January, which called for the council to hold a public meeting within 90 days. That deadline had already passed when the president announced members of the committee.  

“I’m glad to see that it finally happened. We’ve been waiting anxiously,” Budd said. “It is a short timeline to get things done so I hope it is enough time to do a good review of reform… we were very pleased to see there were both current and former emergency management officials on that list.”

Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley was appointed to the council and said he believes there does still have to be some sort of federal response to natural disasters.

“What we don’t want to do is say, ‘Hey FEMA is going to go away,’ and stop,” Whatley, who previously led North Carolina's GOP, told Spectrum News. “What we need to say is what is the future going to look like in terms of a federal response. We need to work closely with the state. We need to work closely with local governments, with county governments.”

Whatley didn’t specify how long the FEMA Review Council could take to come up with changes but said it will take time, including whether changes to FEMA might need to go through Congress or just the White House.