Topline
The Federal Emergency Management Agency placed more than a dozen staffers on leave Tuesday after they signed an open letter to Congress criticizing the Trump administration’s budget cuts for the agency and warned that the move could cause another Hurricane Katrina-like disaster management failure.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) suspended a dozen staffers on Tuesday.
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Key Facts
The open letter, titled “Katrina Declaration,” was signed by more than 180 FEMA staffers, of whom 35 attached their names and the remaining were anonymous.
According to Stand Up for Science, the nonprofit group that helped publicize the declaration, many of its signatories received letters from the agency informing them that they were being placed on administrative leave immediately.
The letter did not specify a reason for the suspension, only noting that it was “not a disciplinary action” and urging the staffers to keep the matter “as confidential as possible.”
The letter states that the suspended staffers will operate “in a non-duty status while continuing to receive pay and benefits.”
According to the Washington Post, which first reported the suspensions, at least two staffers placed on leave on Tuesday were involved in FEMA’s response to the deadly flooding in Texas last month.
The Post reported that one of the suspended staffers—who manages cases for multiple disasters—attached their name to the declaration, but it is unclear if the suspensions targeted all the named signatories.
Chief Critic
In a statement on the suspensions issued on social media, Stand Up for Science said: “This is illegal, plain and simple. FEMA workers are doing their duty as public servants by blowing the whistle on the dismantling of their agency — and whistleblowing is protected under federal law. Donald Trump and Kristi Noem may be content with more Americans dying from natural disasters, but we’re not. The courageous FEMA staff who wrote the Katrina Declaration will not be silenced.”
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2025/08/27/fema-staffers-placed-on-leave-after-signing-open-letter-to-congress-criticizing-trumps-cuts/
