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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
FEMA workers put on leave after signing letter warning of Trump’s
overhaul of the agency
By Gabe Cohen, CNN
Updated:
10:57 PM EDT, Tue August 26, 2025
Source: CNN
The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Tuesday placed several
employees on administrative leave effective immediately, just one day
after they that the Trump administration’s sweeping overhaul of
the agency could lead to catastrophic failures in disaster response.
Titled “Katrina Declaration,” accuses President Donald Trump and
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose department oversees
FEMA, of undermining the agency’s capabilities, ignoring its
congressionally mandated authority and appointing unqualified
leadership. The group calls for FEMA to be shielded from political
interference and for its workforce to be protected from politically
motivated firings.
Of the more than 180 current and former FEMA staffers who signed the
letter, most did so anonymously. Only 36 signed publicly, though it’s
unclear how many were still employed when the letter was released.
Among them was Virginia Case, a supervisory management and program
analyst, who told CNN she received notice Tuesday evening that she’d
been placed on paid leave.
“I’m disappointed but not surprised,” Case said, adding that she
was aware of at least six other FEMA workers who received similar
emails. “I’m also proud of those of us who stood up, regardless of
what it might mean for our jobs. The public deserves to know what’s
happening, because lives and communities will suffer if this
continues.”
Workers who are placed on leave “will conduct no business, visit no
FEMA/DHS facility and contact no FEMA/DHS personnel,” according to an
email to FEMA employees reviewed by CNN.
Employees were also ordered to share their personal email addresses
because access to their FEMA/DHS accounts had been suspended.
“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,” a FEMA spokesperson said in a statement to CNN. “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.”
The “Katrina Declaration” letter warns that critical reforms
enacted after the failed response to Hurricane Katrina are being
unraveled, as the Trump administration moves to either abolish or
drastically shrink FEMA’s role.
The move echoes actions taken earlier this summer, when the Trump
administration from the Environmental Protection Agency days after they
signed a public letter raising concerns about the treatment of federal
workers and the Trump administration’s regulations on climate and
public health.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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