More than 180 current and former employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency published a letter Monday warning that debilitating cuts to the agency charged with handling federal disaster response risks a catastrophe like the one seen after Hurricane Katrina.
“Our shared commitment to our country, our oaths of office, and our mission of helping people before, during, and after disasters compel us to warn Congress and the American people of the cascading effects of decisions made by the current administration,” the letter states.
The statement in it is noteworthy not only for its content but for its overall existence; a fierce approach toward critics by the Trump administration has caused many in the federal government to hesitate before locking heads with the White House.
The letter coincides with the 20th anniversary week of Hurricane Katrina, when more than 1,800 people died and profound failures in the federal response prompted Congress to pass the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006.
The letter warns that poor management and eroded capacity at FEMA could undue progress made to improve the agency through that law.
“Two decades later, FEMA is enacting processes and leadership structures that echo the conditions PKEMRA was designed to prevent,” it states.
It comes amid uncertainty for FEMA
The letter is addressed to the FEMA Review Council, a 12-person group of elected officials, emergency managers and other leaders from mostly Republican states that President Donald Trump appointed to suggest reforms to an agency he has repeatedly threatened to eliminate.
It comes after months of upheaval at FEMA. One-third of the agency’s full-time workforce has left or been fired, including many high-level staff. The agency’s acting chief, Cameron Hamilton, was fired in May and replaced by another acting head, David Richardson. Neither has prior emergency management experience.
FEMA’s response to the July Texas floods that killed at least 136 people came under criticism after reports that survivor calls to FEMA went unanswered and Urban Search and Rescue teams deployed late because of a policy by which Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem must personally approve expenditures above $100,000.
The letter contains six “statements of opposition” to current policies at FEMA, including the expenditure approval policy, which the signatories say reduces FEMA’s ability to perform its missions.
It also critiques the DHS decision to reassign some FEMA employees to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the failure to appoint a qualified FEMA administrator as stipulated by law, and cuts to mitigation programs, preparedness training and FEMA workforce.
In an email Monday, FEMA spokesperson Daniel Llargues said that the Trump Administration “has made accountability and reform a priority so that taxpayer dollars actually reach the people and communities they are meant to help.”
“It is not surprising that some of the same bureaucrats who presided over decades of inefficiency are now objecting to reform,” Llargues said. “Change is always hard.”
Letter seeks to establish FEMA as a cabinet-level agency
The letter was also sent to multiple Congressional committees and calls on lawmakers to establish FEMA as a cabinet-level independent agency in the executive branch. The bipartisan Fixing Emergency Management for Americans, or FEMA Act, introduced in the House last month, proposes the same.
Thirty five signatories included their names. The 141 anonymous signatories “choose not to identify themselves due to the culture of fear and suppression cultivated by this administration,” according to the letter.
Employees at other agencies including the National Institutes of Health and Environmental Protection Agency have issued similar statements. About 140 EPA staff members at the were placed on administrative leave for signing an opposition letter.
The FEMA Review Council will meet for the third time this week on Thursday.
