Fourteen FEMA employees are back on the job this week, having spent the last eight months on paid administrative leave for the audacity of signing a public letter that said, essentially, “Hey, maybe we should be prepared for disasters.” The letter, known as the “Katrina declaration,” was sent last August to Congress and a federal council tasked with figuring out FEMA’s future. It warned that the agency’s ability to handle natural disasters was eroding faster than a beachfront property in a Category 5.
The timing was deliberate: the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which killed 1,833 people and wrecked New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in 2005. The message was clear: history is repeating itself, and not in a fun way. More than 190 current and former FEMA employees signed the letter; 36 put their names on it. The ones still employed were placed on indefinite paid leave the next day. They were briefly reinstated in December before being yanked back, which a DHS spokesperson blamed on “bureaucrats acting outside of their authority” - a phrase that apparently means “oops.”
Abby McIlraith, a FEMA emergency management specialist and one of the reinstated workers, said the group got emails Wednesday telling them to come back. By Thursday she was at the FEMA office in Maryland, waiting for her work devices to be reactivated. “I feel pretty vindicated,” she said. “We did the right thing.” The reinstatement is one of several reversals by new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who seems to be distancing himself from his predecessor Kristi Noem’s more aggressive approach - before she was fired, that is. Pressed by Democratic Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey about the suspended staffers during his confirmation hearing last month, Mullin called whistleblower retaliation unlawful and promised to “work within the law.” He’s also reversed Noem’s policy requiring his office to approve any DHS expenditure over $100,000, and has released more than $1 billion in backlogged FEMA grants and reimbursements since being sworn in.
The $100,000 policy was just one of several actions criticized in the letter. Others included reassigning FEMA employees to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, failing to appoint a qualified FEMA administrator as required by law, and cutting mitigation programs, preparedness training, and the FEMA workforce. Many of those concerns remain. Hundreds of millions in national preparedness funding was cut in 2025, and FEMA lost roughly a third of its full-time staff - including experienced leaders - to firings, retirements, and resignations. The letter also called for FEMA to be removed from DHS and restored to a cabinet-level agency. The agency is still severely hampered ahead of hurricane, extreme heat, and fire seasons, according to staffers and experts.
“I am very happy these career civil servants are getting their due and getting back to work,” said a former FEMA employee who spoke anonymously. “But it might be too little, too late.” The worst effects, experts say, may not reveal themselves until catastrophe strikes. Already, there have been severe delays in aid for communities hit by Hurricane Helene in 2024. It took administration officials more than 72 hours to authorize federal search-and-rescue teams after the Guadalupe River in Texas flooded last July, killing over 135 people. When deadly tornadoes hit the Midwest and Great Plains in March, local teams had to deploy without key tornado-tracking tools because a $200,000 FEMA contract was allowed to lapse in February.
The former employee added: “When you think about potential lives lost and the people who weren’t made whole because they didn’t get the assistance they needed because there were less people on the job … what did any of this accomplish besides putting us in a weaker position when it comes to responding to disasters?” Donald Trump has repeatedly called for states to take on more disaster response responsibility, but most aren’t equipped to do so. It could take years to make key changes, according to Bill Turner, emergency management director for Connecticut and a chair at the National Emergency Management Association. Trump’s budget proposal for next year would slash grant programs that help states and localities prepare by $1.3 billion if adopted.
FEMA’s fate might become clearer next week, when the Trump-appointed FEMA Review Council presents its long-overdue recommendation report, expected to propose sweeping changes. McIlraith said she’s paying close attention and is undeterred. “Until FEMA capabilities are restored and disaster survivors are served, I’m going to continue speaking out.”