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Dozens of FEMA employees have reportedly been placed on leave after hundreds of staffers signed a letter criticizing the Trump administration's handling of the agency.
According to the Washington Post, at least 30 FEMA staffers received a notice that they were being placed on indefinite paid leave as of Tuesday (August 26). The notice reportedly stated that the move was "not a disciplinary action and is not intended to be punitive," despite many employees signing a letter this week warning that budget cuts and internal policy changes have crippled FEMA's ability to respond to disasters.
Advocacy group Stand Up for Science, which helped publicize the letter, said “many” of those suspended were actively involved in July’s flood response in Texas.
“Once again, we are seeing the federal government retaliate against our civil servants for whistleblowing—which is both illegal and a deep betrayal of the most dedicated among us,” the group said in a statement to Newsweek.
The letter, sent on Monday (August 25) to FEMA’s Review Council and members of Congress, called out six specific issues at the agency, including cuts to preparedness training and mitigation programs, staff reassignments to ICE, and a policy requiring Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to approve any FEMA contract over $100,000.
“We hope this warning comes in time to prevent not only another national catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina, but the effective dissolution of FEMA itself,” the letter said.
Only 36 employees signed with their full names, as others feared retaliation.
FEMA spokesperson Daniel Llargues defended the administration’s actions, “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.”
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