In a dramatic about-face, the Trump administration on Monday re-suspended more than a dozen FEMA employees mere hours after CNN broke the news that they’d been reinstated to the agency following a three-month exile and a probe into alleged misconduct.
The staffers were put on administrative leave in August for signing a blistering open letter to Congress – dubbed the “Katrina Declaration” – warning that the administration’s overhaul of the disaster relief agency was putting American lives at risk.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, confirmed the reversal Monday afternoon.
“CNN reporting revealed that 14 FEMA employees previously placed on leave for misconduct were wrongly and without authorization reinstated by bureaucrats acting outside of their authority,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement. “Once alerted, the unauthorized reinstatement was swiftly corrected by senior leadership. The 14 employees who signed the Katrina declaration have been returned to administrative leave.”
“This Administration will not tolerate rogue conduct, unauthorized actions, or entrenched bureaucrats resisting change. Federal employees are expected to follow lawful direction, uphold agency standards, and serve the American people,” the statement continued.
Just last week, the workers received reinstatement notices from FEMA. “The misconduct investigation has been closed, and as a result you are being removed from Administrative Leave,” said one email reviewed by CNN.
One staffer was told by a supervisor that the investigation found they “didn’t abide by policy,” but were “protected by the whistleblower act,” according to messages reviewed by CNN.
Some in the group had already reported back, while others were ordered to rejoin their teams this week.
But on Monday afternoon, the workers received new notices – nearly identical to the ones they got in August – informing them they are back on administrative leave.
“The decision to reinstate the workers was made by senior career management [at FEMA],” said David Seide, senior counsel for the Government Accountability Project, which represents some of the workers. “It’s appalling to see politicos countermanding their reasoned judgments.”
The controversy began in August, when more than 190 current and former FEMA officials signed the “Katrina Declaration.” The letter warned Congress that efforts to dismantle FEMA could put American lives at risk, raising fears of another failed federal disaster response on the scale of Hurricane Katrina.
Most signers remained anonymous, but a handful of current staff publicly signed their names. Within days, those employees were placed on paid leave.
FEMA launched formal misconduct investigations in September, summoning the outspoken staffers for interviews. The Trump administration had already suspended or fired more than 100 employees at the Environmental Protection Agency for a similar act of dissent earlier in the summer.
By mid-November, one FEMA worker received a termination notice while others remained on leave. But after an appeal, that employee — along with the others — was told last week they could return, multiple sources told CNN.
DHS did not respond to questions before CNN’s initial story published Monday morning.
Even before that story published, some of the reinstated workers feared they could still face addition retaliation.
“I don’t think that it’s over yet. I think it’s still an evolving situation,” Abby McIlraith, a FEMA emergency management specialist who had been reinstated, told CNN on Sunday. “But I know that I didn’t do anything wrong, so I feel pretty vindicated and happy to be back and be able to see my co-workers and do my job again.”
