Trump Administration Suspends Employees Who Signed a Letter Criticizing FEMA Leadership

As many as 35 Federal Emergency Management Agency employees are on administrative leave after they signed a public letter criticizing the agency’s leadership.A total of 191 current and former FEMA employees signed the letter earlier this week. While most did it anonymously, 35 signed their names.The Trump administration has now put “many” of those employees on forced paid leave, the organization Stand Up For Science confirmed to The New York Sun on Wednesday.The public letter, titled the Katrina Declaration, warned that the Trump administration’s “dismantling cuts” and “devastating attacks” on FEMA programs leaves the country vulnerable to a botched disaster response similar to what happened after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005.The Category 3 hurricane killed more than 1,800 people. FEMA was blamed for a failure to deliver effective aid for days, leaving victims to fend for themselves.The letter claimed that FEMA is now led by individuals, including the acting FEMA administrator, David Richardson, who lack the backgrounds required for their roles.The employees also criticized a policy introduced by the Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, requiring that she personally approve any contract exceeding $100,000.Stand Up For Science, which hosted the FEMA employee letter, says that some of the employees placed on leave recently participated in relief efforts after a deadly flood at Kerr County, Texas.The organization could not provide an exact number of FEMA workers placed on leave but said, “It seems likely they’ve retaliated against all public signers.”In a prepared statement, the group charged that the suspensions are illegal because of rules against retaliating against federal whistleblowers.“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,” the statement says.FEMA would not confirm the number of personnel affected but emailed a statement to the Sun saying, “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 added: “Our obligation is to survivors, not to protecting broken systems. Under the leadership of Secretary Noem, FEMA will return to its mission of assisting Americans at their most vulnerable.”

Trump Administration Suspends Employees Who Signed a Letter Criticizing FEMA Leadership

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