FEMA reopens National Fire Academy after nearly three-month, DOGE-driven shutdown

Almost three months after the Federal Emergency Management Agency abruptly canceled classes at the National Fire Academy, saying it would only support mission-critical functions, someone at FEMA apparently decided that fire training is critical to the agency’s mission.

FEMA announced Thursday that classes would resume June 2 at its “national schoolhouses”: the National Fire Academy and the National Disaster and Emergency Management University, both in Emmitsburg, and the Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston, Alabama.

Classes at all three had been canceled abruptly and without explanation in an email on March 7, a Friday, that said programs were suspended effective immediately and that the cancellations would remain in place indefinitely.

But in Thursday’s announcement, FEMA and the U.S. Fire Administration said they had “determined certain courses provide effective training to enhance national readiness for state, local, tribal and territorial emergency managers, first responders and local leaders. FEMA’s principles for emergency management assert that disasters are best managed when they’re federally supported, state managed and locally executed.”

More than 60 members of Congress — including every Democrat in the Maryland delegation — wrote to the head of FEMA and to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on March 14, demanding to know why the centers had been closed and when they would reopen. They never got an answer to their letter, but Thursday’s reopening announcement said the closing had been ordered as part of the work of billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, Service.

The shutdown followed a Feb. 26 executive order from President Donald Trump on “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Cost Efficiency Initiative, to ensure alignment with the Administration’s priority of good use of taxpayer funds.” It came in the early, heady days of DOGE, when grants and payments were suspended and programs put on ice, before courts stepped in and started slowing or reversing DOGE actions.

Even though they never got an answer to their letter, Maryland lawmakers welcomed the news Thursday that the fire academy would soon be back in business.

“I am happy to share that programming will be resuming immediately for dedicated fire fighters and first responders from around the nation,” said Rep. April McClain Delaney (D-6th). “The rash decision to close the academy wasted valuable resources and undermined our communities’ safety, resilience, and response efforts. ”

McClain Delaney, whose district includes the academy, called the original closure “senseless.” That was echoed by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) in a joint statement on the reopening with McClain Delaney and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.).

“The Trump Administration’s decision to abruptly cancel these classes made no sense – and what’s more, it risked significant harm to our communities and those who protect them,” Van Hollen’s statement said. “While the good work done by the men and women [of the] National Fire Academy never should have been halted, I’m glad to see the Administration has heeded our calls to lift this senseless ban.”