The 14 FEMA employees who signed the so-called Katrina declaration went back to work for a little while Monday — but the Department of Homeland Security now says that should never have happened.
Why it matters: A spokesperson for DHS told Axios in an email that their employees' reinstatement was unauthorized.
- "CNN reporting revealed that 14 FEMA employees previously placed on leave for misconduct were wrongly and without authorization reinstated by bureaucrats acting outside of their authority," the department said in an email.
- "Once alerted, the unauthorized reinstatement was swiftly corrected by senior leadership. The 14 employees who signed the Katrina declaration have been returned to administrative leave."
Catch up quick: The employees were placed on leave this summer after signing the petition protesting the Trump administration's disaster response efforts.
- Dubbed the Katrina Declaration and sent to Congress in August, the petition warned that cuts to the agency were putting people and property at risk, and were a departure from improvements in disaster response put in place after the botched response to the devastating 2005 Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
- Just one day after it was made public, the Department of Homeland Security put signers who had used their full names on indefinite leave — one employee was fired.
- The signers then filed complaints with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency that investigates whistleblower complaints.
Zoom in: They received notices of their reinstatement last week, and were ordered to return to the office Monday.
- But by the afternoon, they received memos ordering them back on leave, said David Seide, senior counsel at the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit group that helped workers file their complaints.
- "It's appalling that the politicos have overruled the managers," he tells Axios.
Zoom out: Previously in the day, Seide said the reinstatement would help his group make the case to reinstate other workers in similar situations. to argue for other government workers. "I'd expect them to treat it as meaningful precedent."
- 144 employees at the EPA were put on leave in July, and seven were fired, after putting out a similar letter. Last month, the NIH placed Jenna Norton on leave. Norton signed a similar petition, deemed the "Bethesda Declaration."
The big picture: It's far more difficult to fire federal workers than those in the private sector — though the Trump administration has been pushing to change that.
- Hundreds of thousands of federal employees have been terminated or pushed out of work by the administration this year.
- Though a few efforts — like conducting layoffs during the shutdown — have been thwarted.
Zoom out: President Trump has floated "getting rid of" FEMA in the past, and putting the responsibility for disaster relief more squarely in the hands of the states.
- But the White House backed away from that stance after devastating floods in Texas last summer.
What they're saying: "They were all so excited to return to work," says Colette Delawalla, CEO of Stand up for Science, a nonnprofit advocacy group started this year that's working with these employees.
- They're a group devoted to the mission of FEMA, she tells Axios. A few of them had been pulled from working on disaster relief efforts in Texas after deadly flooding there this summer.
- "They're pretty upset now."
More from Axios:
- Post-Katrina safeguards being eroded at FEMA, employees warn
- Multiple FEMA staff put on leave after letter criticizing Trump admin
Editor's note: This article and the headline have been updated to reflect comment from the Department of Homeland Security saying the FEMA workers were wrongly reinstated, and it's been updated with comment from Stand up for Science CEO Colette Delawalla.
