Donald Trump’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) has placed some agency staff on leave after they signed a public letter of dissent this week. The missive warns that federal officials’ sweeping overhaul of the agency puts the US at risk of another disaster like 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.
“Dismantling the agency piecemeal while threatening to do so entirely will render such a tragedy, once again, inevitable,” Jennifer Forester, a Fema analyst who was placed on leave yesterday, told the Guardian.
Among those facing potential retaliation are staff who were directly responsible for relief efforts in Kerr county, Texas, which is still reeling from the deadly floods it faced last month, according to Stand Up for Science, the advocacy group that published the Monday letter.
“This situation is developing, but this decision underscores the many issues these public servants described in their declaration and their bravery in standing up for Americans in need,” said a Stand Up for Science spokesperson.
More than 180 current and former Fema employees signed the letter sent to the Fema Review Council and Congress on Monday critiquing recent cuts to agency staff and programs, and warning that Fema’s capacity to respond to a major disaster was dangerously diminished.
Thirty-six signed their names while 141 signed anonymously for fear of retribution. Some reports say that up to 30 signatories have been placed on leave.
Though Stand Up for Science could not confirm that number, “it seems likely they’ve retaliated against all public signers”, a spokesperson said.
“Stand Up for Science is proud to have hosted their Katrina Declaration and we stand by the Fema 36,” the person added.
The Associated Press confirmed that at least two of the signatories received notices on Tuesday evening informing them they would be placed on leave indefinitely, with pay, and that they must still check in every morning confirming their availability. The status of other signatories was unclear.
The notice said the decision “is not a disciplinary action and is not intended to be punitive”.
Fema did not respond immediately to questions about how many staff members received the notice and whether it was related to the letter.
The Washington Post first reported that some Fema employees were being put on leave.
Called the “Katrina Declaration” by signers, the letter references the much-criticized Fema response to Hurricane Katrina, which struck the Gulf coast 20 years ago this week.
“After Katrina, without the local and state organizations getting the federal funding and personnel they needed to perform rescue and relief operations, people died and suffered horribly on the ground,” said Jennifer Forester, Fema analyst. “Although the storm was inevitable and the damage it caused was attributable to local failures, the response to it was absolutely preventable at the federal level, and the government still has the power to prevent future death and suffering with proper staff and funding.”
Jeremy Edwards, former spokesperson for Fema and the White House under Joe Biden’s presidency, who signed the letter, said the agency had been “completely unprepared for Katrina because of where they were positioned within the federal government at the time”.
He said the Trump administration was failing to comply with the 2006 Post Katrina Emergency Response Act (PKEMRA) passed to prevent future botched disaster responses.
“As an example, PKEMRA required Fema to be led by someone with disaster management experience. This administration failed that test,” he said. “It requires that the secretary of homeland security not reduce the capacity or ability of the agency. They failed that test. And it requires them to provide training and preparedness measures for state and local partners, and they’ve rolled back a lot of those trainings, or put them on pause.”
Annie Ginzkey, another letter signatory who was an analyst at Fema until she resigned two months ago, said: “The people put in charge do not have the emergency management experience to effectively lead this agency.”
She noted that agency administrator, David Richardson, “admitted he did not know the United States had hurricanes” – something an agency spokesperson later claimed was a joke.
The dissent letter contained six “statements of opposition” to current policies at Fema, including an expenditure approval policy by which the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, must approve contracts exceeding $100,000, which the signatories said reduces Fema’s ability to perform its mission.
It also critiqued the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to reassign some Fema employees to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), the failure to appoint a qualified Fema administrator as stipulated by law, and cuts to mitigation programs, preparedness training and the Fema workforce.
Edwards said the Trump administration could immediately appoint a new acting Fema administrator with more disaster management experience, and end new policies requiring Noem to sign off on agency spending.
They should also ensure that the agency is properly staffed and funded, said Forester.
“I cannot speak as to whether the administration will do these things because I am not in a position of power, but I can hope,” she said.
But at least one anonymous current staffer was skeptical of the letter’s ability to deliver change.
“I appreciate where their heart is but not a lot of upside for folks who work here to sign on to something like that,” the anonymous staffer said.
In an email on Monday, a Fema spokesperson said: “It is not surprising that some of the same bureaucrats who presided over decades of inefficiency are now objecting to reform.
“Change is always hard. It is especially for those invested in the status quo, who have forgotten that their duty is to the American people not entrenched bureaucracy.”
The statement was “an insult to anyone working at Fema, the agency directly responsive to rapidly intensifying and changing circumstances”, said a Stand Up for Science spokesperson.
The letter follows reports that the Department of Homeland Security, Fema’s parent agency, has administered lie detector tests in response to leaks about how the agency is being run.
“There is a huge culture of fear and intimidation that the secretary of homeland security has imposed upon the agency, and that David Richardson [Fema’s acting administrator] is also imposing,” said Edwards.
He said he had known people who were “unceremoniously fired on the spot” after failing polygraph tests.
“They refute the results, mind you, and these aren’t legitimate exercises, but they were walked out of the building,” he said. “The fact that the people who signed on to this letter saw all that happening, knew that that very same thing could happen to them, and they still took the risk because they thought it was important to put their name on this thing, I think speaks to an immense amount of courage on behalf of these people.”
In June, the president said he wanted to shutter Fema after hurricane season ends, though homeland security secretary Kristi Noem later said he wants to overhaul the agency, not eliminate it.
“I expect there to be a catastrophic disaster that Fema is not able to adequately respond to because of the cuts, and the Trump administration will use the failure as an excuse to further cut or close the agency,” said Ginzkey.
Stand Up for Science was also behind an earlier letter of dissent from current and former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) staff, over which about 140 EPA staff members were placed on administrative leave.
