From the Washington Post: The Trump administration placed more than 30 Federal Emergency Management Agency employees on leave Tuesday after they signed an open letter of dissent about the agency’s leadership, according to people familiar with the situation and documents reviewed by The Washington Post.
About 180 current and former FEMA staffers sent a letter on Monday to members of Congress and other officials, arguing the current leaders’ inexperience and approach harm FEMA’s mission and could result in a disaster on the level of Hurricane Katrina. About three dozen people had signed their names; the majority of signatories were anonymous.
By Tuesday evening, FEMA’s office of the administrator had sent several people letters informing them that, effective immediately, they were on an administrative leave, operating “in a non-duty status while continuing to receive pay and benefits.”
“It is not surprising that some of the same bureaucrats who presided over decades of inefficiency are now objecting to reform. … Our obligation is to survivors, not to protecting broken systems,” a FEMA spokesperson said. “Under the leadership of Secretary Noem, FEMA will return to its mission of assisting Americans at their most vulnerable.”
President Trump has repeatedly called for the states to have more ability to respond to their own disasters, instead of having to wait on the federal government.
The rogue FEMA employees claimed in their letter that the Trump administration is sending the agency back to a pre-Katrina era, as they listed multiple cuts made.
The letter also demanded that FEMA be removed from the oversight of DHS and instead be established as an independent Cabinet-level agency.
DHS blasted out the following statement in response to the Washington Post’s report:
If this “reporter” had even thought to reach out for comment, she would know that the allegations in this letter are both ridiculous and blatantly false. The career bureaucrats signing onto this letter have stood idly by and watched FEMA flounder and fail for decades, knowing that the agency was broken and ineffective. We refuse to let their complacency continue.
FEMA is fully prepared for Hurricane Season. This Administration is cutting the bloat and turning FEMA into a lean, deployable, disaster force that cuts through bureaucracy and provides support to the American people when they need it most: following an emergency or natural disaster.
If this “reporter” had even thought to reach out for comment, she would know that the allegations in this letter are both ridiculous and blatantly false. The career bureaucrats signing onto this letter have stood idly by and watched FEMA flounder and fail for decades, knowing… https://t.co/EBlp3wrUu9
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) August 25, 2025
Liberals are also fuming after the Trump administration is trying to prevent tax-payer FEMA funds from going to aid illegal aliens.
In February, DHS fired four FEMA employees who sent $59,000,000 to luxury hotels in New York City for illegal aliens.
The Department of Homeland Security is barring states and volunteer groups that receive government funds, like the Red Cross and Salvation Army, from helping undocumented immigrants, according to a Washington Post analysis. https://t.co/olUwsYqdRA pic.twitter.com/E0EzMNRHII
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 28, 2025
Breaking news: The Trump administration placed some FEMA employees on leave Tuesday after they signed an open letter of dissent about the agency’s leadership, according to documents reviewed by The Post. https://t.co/7crxSxEvHZ
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 27, 2025
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