The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency would report directly to the U.S. president instead of the Homeland Security secretary, under a bipartisan bill announced in the House of Representatives on Thursday.

Fired employees have struggled to get a judge to hear their cases because Congress set up a separate system to referee such employment disputes.

Former FEMA official Jeremy Edwards joined Morning Joe after the resignation of the agency’s Urban Search and Rescue chief, who reportedly quit over the Trump administration’s delayed response to deadly flooding in Texas.

Several states and two Native American tribes waited months for disaster aid, while hundreds of requests for critical emergency services remain on hold.

The head of FEMA offered no guarantees about the agency’s survival during a hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. He also defended the Trump administration's response to deadly floods in Texas.

Lincoln County residents who sustained damage from the severe flooding last month can now apply for financial assistance from FEMA. MORE: <a href="

The declaration gives state and local governments, as well as certain nonprofits, the ability to apply for public assistance funds to repair and replace damaged infrastructure. The counties that can apply are Bourbon, Cheyenne, Edwards, Gove, Kiowa, Logan, Pratt, Reno, Scott, Sheridan and Stafford.

Congress should be demanding accountability from FEMA. Instead they're going on vacation. A short hearing by the House Transportation Committee offered little insight into what went wrong in Texas.