EMMITSBURG, Md. — FEMA will resume in-person training at the National Fire Academy in early June, the agency announced. The move follows a months-long pause that halted in-person instruction at the Emmitsburg, Maryland, campus.
Training will also resume at the Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) in Anniston, Alabama, and the National Disaster and Emergency Management University (NDEMU), which shares the Emmitsburg campus with the NFA. These three facilities serve as FEMA’s primary national training centers for emergency responders and public safety officials.
The FEMA announcement stated: “Following a comprehensive review by FEMA and the U.S. Fire Administration, it was 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.”
The training freeze, implemented in March 2025, was tied to Executive Order 14222, part of the Trump Administration’s “Department of Government Efficiency” cost-cutting initiative. At the time, FEMA cited the need to align programs and travel spending with the Administration’s priorities. In a notice to instructors, FEMA said it would only authorize travel for “mission-critical programs,” and indicated that NFA courses did not meet that threshold.
Fire service leaders pushed back immediately, warning the pause would impact national readiness and firefighter development. Congressional lawmakers also raised concerns, and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told a Senate appropriations subcommittee in May that her office was working to restore funding for NFA programs.
FireRescue1 Senior Fire Advisor Chief Marc Bashoor reacted to the announcement: “This is great news for the fire service. To understand my relative euphoria about the NFA reopening, it is important to understand that the NFA is not merely a place. The NFA is a network that provides both instructor-led advanced training and online opportunities across all 50 states as well as on site at the Emmitsburg campus. I suspect there are many firefighters who are simply not aware that many of the NFA courses have been delivered at state academies and local departments across the country – they could have attended an NFA course and not realized it.”
Bashoor continued: “As I continue to reflect on IAFC President Josh Waldo’s comments at the Metro Chiefs conference to ‘get comfortable being uncomfortable’ with respect to current political processes in Washington, I will celebrate today’s news as well as the news of FEMA opening SAFER and FP&S grants earlier this week. While it appears that we were able to win back about half of the federal grant funding, all actual effects are yet to be determined. In understanding that we don’t know what we don’t know, we will have to accept some continued discomfort moving forward as we aim to secure support for our vital programs.”
The National Fire Academy is operated by FEMA and governed by the USFA. The Emmitsburg campus is also home to the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial.
