FEMA Delays $745M for 6 California Projects as Federal Staff Drops 10%

Delayed federal disaster-mitigation grants across California and sweeping reductions in the federal civilian bureaucracy highlighted administrative governance reports on November 7, 2026.

Six Los Angeles Resilience Projects Worth $745 Million Wait Over Four Months for FEMA Approval

Six infrastructure projects in Los Angeles designed to protect power systems, housing, and public services from wildfires, earthquakes, and flooding have been waiting more than 4 months for final approval from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), according to Mayor Karen Bass and a congressional letter from U.S. Reps. Maxine Waters and Brad Sherman. As of early September 2026, FEMA had obligated $0 of the $745 million in potential Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) funds. Specifically, the 6 pending Los Angeles projects include:

• Flood-reduction improvements at 4 recurring high-risk locations across the city;
• Seismic retrofits at 9 critical Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) electrical substations; and
• Installation of fire-resistant cable-trench covers at 21 high-priority LADWP substations to mitigate wildfire ignition risk.

The bottleneck extends across California and the nation. In Northern California, El Dorado County spent 3 years preparing to enroll more than 500 homes in a wildfire-resilience program that has stalled for over 1 year awaiting FEMA sign-off, while nearby Plumas County is waiting on $2.5 million to clear flammable vegetation and Los Angeles County’s $4.89 million HMGP award from December 2024 for the Encinal Canyon Road Emergency Interconnection Project in Malibu remains delayed in processing. Nationally, internal documents cited by NPR indicate FEMA owes communities nearly $10 billion. According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) finding, FEMA takes an average of 7 to 9 months to review Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) applications, leaving 700 local grant requests in limbo as of March 2025 after the BRIC program was paused from April 2025 until a federal court reinstated it in March 2026, and Congressional Research Service data cited on September 2, 2026 showed no new Hazard Mitigation Assistance funding approved since March 2025 outside congressional earmarks.

Federal Workforce Falls 10% to 2.7 Million—Lowest Since 1966—Amid Deregulation Push

That administrative slowdown coincides with a historic contraction of the federal civil service. According to a review of executive orders and agency rules by RealClearInvestigations, the Trump administration reduced the federal workforce by 220,000 to 250,000 employees during its first year—a 10% decline that the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities called the largest 1-year reduction in over 75 years—bringing total federal employment to roughly 2.7 million, its lowest level since 1966. Operating under a mandate to hire no more than 1 employee for every 4 departing workers, reductions reached 39% at the Department of Education, 37% at the State Department and associated agencies (after transferring remaining functions of the 13,000-employee USAID in July 2025), and 23% at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, while up to 80% of staff in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division departed (with 300 departing employees replaced by 130 new hires) and more than 20,000 probationary workers were dismissed.

On the structural and regulatory front, the administration reclassified 8,000 senior career positions into at-will roles and created a "Schedule G" category for policy-making political appointees that numbered under 3,000 as of July 2026 (representing nearly 12% of non-confirmed senior leaders as of March 2026). In June, a 6-to-3 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. Slaughter overturned the 1935 Humphrey’s Executor precedent protecting independent agency commissioners from removal without cause, followed by Supreme Court orders denying appeals from Cathy Harris and, on October 19, Gwynne Wilcox. Under a January 31, 2025 10-for-1 directive and a February 18, 2025 Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) review order, agencies completed 646 deregulatory actions versus 5 new regulatory actions in fiscal year 2025—a 129-to-1 ratio. The American Action Forum estimated net regulatory cost reductions of $1.6 trillion as of September 30, 2026 across 3 major environmental rule rollbacks, while an April 2026 Council of Economic Advisers report projected over $5 trillion in long-term savings. Meanwhile, Congress barred finalization of a proposed $1 trillion Uniform Grants Regulation before December 11, 2026, and the GAO challenged an $810 million pocket rescission package after 50 years of dormancy as House Judiciary Ranking Member Rep. Jamie Raskin pledged congressional oversight in the new session.