FEMA Reinstates 14 Employees After Disaster Preparedness Letter

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has reinstated 14 employees who signed a public letter addressing U.S. disaster preparedness, after they spent eight months on administrative leave. The employees returned to work this week following emails received on Wednesday, according to statements from FEMA and accounts from the employees.

The letter, titled the Katrina Declaration and released in August 2025 to mark the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, was signed by these 14 active FEMA staff members along with others no longer at the agency.

The reinstatements occurred under new Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who was sworn in last month. According to a FEMA spokeswoman, Victoria L. " Mullin also reversed a policy that required approval from his predecessor for any DHS expenditure over $100,000, and he released more than $1 billion in backlogged FEMA grants and reimbursements to states, tribes, and territories, as detailed in agency announcements.

The Katrina Declaration outlined specific concerns, including the reassignment of FEMA employees to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the failure to appoint a qualified FEMA administrator as required by law, and cuts to mitigation programs, preparedness training, and the FEMA workforce.

It recommended removing FEMA from DHS and restoring it as a cabinet-level agency. One day after the letter's release, the 14 active employees were placed on indefinite paid administrative leave. They were briefly reinstated in December 2025 before being returned to leave, which a DHS spokesperson at the time attributed to actions by bureaucrats outside their authority, according to reports in The New York Times and other outlets.

FEMA is also taking steps to address staffing, including offers to rehire some of the approximately 200 temporary disaster workers let go in January 2026 and extensions for term-limited employees known as CORE staff. An internal email cited in sources indicated that CORE employees with contracts ending between January and May 2026 may receive up to one-year extensions, while eligible reservists will get two-year renewals.

These measures are intended for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season starting in June and the FIFA World Cup matches in the United States, Canada, and Mexico during June and July.

The agency currently operates without a permanent administrator. Staff reports and state officials have noted challenges for high-risk seasons involving hurricanes, extreme heat, and fires. For example, aid for communities affected by Hurricane Helene in 2024 faced delays; federal search-and-rescue teams took over 72 hours to deploy after a July 2025 flood in Texas that killed more than 135 people; and state teams lacked key tornado-tracking tools during March 2026 tornadoes in the Midwest and Great Plains due to a lapsed $200,000 FEMA contract, according to accounts in The Guardian and The Boston Globe.

Bill Turner, emergency management director at the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, stated in an interview with The New York Times that implementing key changes could take years.

A Trump-appointed FEMA Review Council is scheduled to present its recommendation report next week, which is months overdue and expected to propose changes to the agency. Unions have filed a lawsuit arguing that the January 2026 dismissals violated FEMA's statutory readiness requirements, with nonrenewals paused in late January.

Another 21 signatories to the letter are no longer at the agency, according to reinstated employee Abby McIlraith, a 24-year-old FEMA emergency management specialist who returned to the agency's Maryland office on Thursday. McIlraith stated she will continue speaking out until FEMA's capabilities are restored.

President Trump signed a bill on Thursday funding DHS aspects besides immigration enforcement, replenishing FEMA's disaster fund with over $26 billion after a record-long shutdown ended that day. No publicly released evidence has documented claims of potential lives lost due to reduced staffing, though an anonymous former FEMA employee cited in The Hill welcomed the reinstatements but described them as potentially insufficient.