FEMA workers put on leave after signing letter warning of Trump’s overhaul of the agency

CNN

The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Tuesday placed several employees on administrative leave effective immediately, just one day after they signed an open letter warning Congress that the Trump administration’s sweeping overhaul of the agency could lead to catastrophic failures in disaster response.  #CNN #News  # news #breaking #24x7

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00:00Breaking this morning, FEMA workers, have they been penalized for sounding the alarm

00:06and criticizing the Trump administration? Multiple employees put on leave after they

00:11signed a letter warning Congress that FEMA may fail Americans when responding to a disaster

00:18because all of the changes that President Trump has made to the agency. It's late August. This

00:24is right in the middle of hurricane season. This is right when FEMA typically historically has been

00:31its most essential and it comes as the country marks 20 years since Hurricane Katrina. This letter

00:39that the FEMA staffers wrote was actually titled the Katrina Declaration. More than 180 current and

00:44former staffers signed it. In it, they said FEMA should be shielded from political interference

00:49and that letter accuses the White House of undermining its capabilities. Let's get right

00:53seen as Gabe Cohen. You reported on this letter. The letter went out. Today, dozens get put on leave.

01:03Yeah, John, that's right. I mean, it was just 24 hours ago that I was on this program reporting

01:08on that open letter that was sent to Congress really warning that the Trump overhaul of FEMA

01:14had undone, was reversing about two decades of what the author said was a lot of progress

01:20since the federal failures in the response to Hurricane Katrina. Now, 24 hours later, we're

01:26talking about at least a few of these workers, some of the ones who actually publicly signed their names

01:32on the document because many decided to remain anonymous. They have now been put on leave. That

01:37means they're not going to be able to do business for DHS or FEMA. They are still going to be paid,

01:43but they're really not going to be functionally operating at the agency. I spoke to one of those

01:49workers who received a notice Tuesday evening, as several did. She said at least six that she's aware

01:56of, although it sounds like the number could be quite a bit higher than that. She told me, quote,

02:00I am disappointed, but I am not surprised. The decision doesn't just affect me. It increases the burden

02:06on my colleagues who are already overworked and stretched thin. I'm also proud of those who stood

02:12up, regardless of what it might mean for our jobs. The public deserves to know what is happening

02:17because lives and communities will suffer if this continues. Obviously, there has been a lot of

02:24concern internally at FEMA because of the overhaul of the agency at the hands of the Trump administration.

02:29They have instituted strict spending oversight over the agency. They have also installed inexperienced

02:38leaders that came from the Department of Homeland Security. And that, these authors say, is really

02:44undoing those reforms that were put in place after Katrina to make sure that type of failure did not

02:50happen again. FEMA, for its part, very much disagrees with the messaging here. They explained why those

02:56workers were put on leave, though, saying it is not surprising that some of the same bureaucrats

03:01who presided over decades of inefficiency are now objecting to reform. Our obligation is to survivors,

03:09not to protecting broken systems. But, John, the irony here is a big part of this letter from these

03:15FEMA workers was essentially saying that the agency and its staff needs to be protected from political

03:23decisions, from political fire. And now, just 24 hours later, we see the administration coming in

03:29and ousting the very workers who signed their name to that document.

03:33You know, Gabe, based on your reporting, you know, we heard the statement from them. To what extent do

03:36you think they anticipated this kind of response?

03:39I think the reality is they did expect it, especially considering that earlier this summer,

03:44the Trump administration very similarly put about 140 workers from the EPA on paid administrative leave

03:52after they, too, signed a letter really dissenting to some of the administration's actions,

03:58their treatment of federal workers, and the regulations that they were putting in place

04:02related to the climate space. So these workers knew this was likely a reality. And I can tell you,

04:08I've talked to other sources inside FEMA who really felt like this was symbolically nice,

04:14but that they could not afford to lose any more of their colleagues, given that about a third of the

04:20full-time workforce from FEMA has already left the agency since this second term for President Trump

04:25started.

04:26And given that it is late August, the middle of hurricane season, Gabe Cohen in Washington for

04:31us. We'll let you get back to reporting on this. You've been all over it. Thank you.

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