FEMA workers who sounded alarm over nation's disaster preparedness reinstated after 8 months

Employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency who signed a public letter of dissent last August sounding alarms about the nation's disaster preparedness have been reinstated after being put on paid administrative leave for eight months, according to two FEMA staff members.

The 14 employees were among over 190 current and former FEMA employees who signed the letter but were the only active employees who included their names. The letter, known as the “Katrina Declaration,” called out multiple policy decisions by President Donald Trump's administration that the signatories said risked a catastrophe like the one seen after Hurricane Katrina.

“I feel pretty vindicated, and like we did the right thing,” said Abby McIlraith, a FEMA emergency management specialist who is among the reinstated workers. The group received emails Wednesday instructing them to return to work Thursday, she said.

A FEMA spokesperson told The Associated Press that while it does not comment on specific personnel actions, the agency is taking “targeted steps to stabilize our workforce and strengthen readiness” as it prepares for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season and the FIFA World Cup, both beginning in June.

“Under new leadership, FEMA is addressing outstanding personnel actions to ensure workforce stability and a strong, deployable surge force for upcoming national events and potential disasters,” the spokesperson said.

Their reinstatement, first reported by NBC News, is the latest indication that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is moving away from the harsher approach toward FEMA taken by his predecessor, Kristi Noem, before she was fired as DHS leader.

Mullin quickly reversed Noem's policy that her office approve any DHS expenditure over $100,000 and has released more than $1 billion in backlogged FEMA grants and reimbursements to states, tribes and territories since being sworn in last month.

The $100,000 policy was one of several actions called out in the public letter, released Aug. 25 of last year. Others included the DHS decision to reassign some FEMA employees to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the failure to appoint a qualified FEMA administrator as stipulated by law, and cuts to mitigation programs, preparedness training and the FEMA workforce.

The letter also called for FEMA to be taken out from under DHS and restored to a Cabinet-level agency.

One day after the letter's release, the 14 staffers were put on indefinite paid administrative leave. They were reinstated in early December only to be abruptly placed on leave again after one day. A DHS spokesperson at the time blamed “bureaucrats acting outside of their authority” for the reinstatement.

McIlraith, 24, said that experience left her feeling slightly tentative that their reinstatement would be permanent this time. Nonetheless, she was back at work at a FEMA office in Maryland Thursday, waiting to regain access to her work devices. She called her time away “a waste of taxpayer dollars.”

Pressed by Democratic Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey about the suspended staffers’ fate in his Senate confirmation hearing last month, Mullin called whistleblower retaliation unlawful and vowed to work “within the law."

McIlraith said her apprehensions over FEMA’s future persist as the agency continues operating without a permanent administrator and is still impacted by the record-long DHS shutdown.

The House on Thursday passed a bill already approved by the Senate that would fund all aspects of DHS besides immigration enforcement. Trump signed it later Thursday. It will replenish FEMA's dwindling disaster fund with over $26 billion.

Next week, the Trump-appointed FEMA Review Council will present its highly anticipated and months-overdue recommendation report, which is expected to propose sweeping changes to the agency that the president has repeatedly criticized and even threatened to abolish altogether.

McIlreath said she's paying close attention to what changes the council proposes and is undeterred by what happened to her and her colleagues. “Until FEMA capabilities are restored and disaster survivors are served I’m going to continue speaking out.”