FEMA internal memorandum, "Recovery Guidance for Terminology Changes"

Guidance/memoDHS

Date
Actor
Federal Emergency Management Agency (senior career official), Department of Homeland Security
Agency
Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Type
Guidance/memo
Section
SUPPLEMENT: THE GOVERNMENT-WIDE CFR 'TERMINOLOGY' RULEMAKINGS ARE ONLY PARTIALLY CAPTURED — TSA'S MAY 2025 FINAL RULE AND THE AUGUST 2026 FDA COMMENT REOPENING ARE MISSING

Summary

Directs FEMA staff to comply with the administration's executive actions and with a February 14, 2025 memorandum from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem by removing language, policy, and doctrine "concerning gender, DEI, immigration and climate change" from agency recovery guidance and doctrine. The memo enumerates specific terms to be struck (including "social justice," "global warming," "climate resilience," and "whole community") and specific substitutions to be made (including "noncitizen" to "alien"). A follow-on internal FEMA memo in March 2025 circulated an expanded list of prohibited "DEIA and climate change terms." FEMA is the only agency in this catalog whose terminology scrub was executed entirely through internal doctrine rather than through the Federal Register, which is why it does not appear in any Federal Register sweep.

Status

No public rescission or modification of the memorandum located. FEMA doctrine and recovery guidance issued after February 2025 reflect the directed terminology.

As recorded in the data of . Check the sources for anything newer.

Sources