More than 180 present and former Federal Emergency Management Agency staff – most signing anonymously – despatched a sharply worded letter to Congress on Monday, warning that the Trump administration’s sweeping overhaul is gutting the catastrophe aid agency’s authority and capabilities, undoing 20 years of progress because the failures of Hurricane Katrina.
Titled “Katrina Declaration,” the letter accuses President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose division oversees FEMA, of eroding the agency’s response capabilities and appointing unqualified management. The group requires FEMA to be shielded from political interference and for its workforce to be protected against politically motivated firings.
The warning comes because the nation marks 20 years since Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, killing greater than 1,800 individuals. The botched FEMA effort uncovered deadly flaws within the federal emergency response system – failures that led Congress to cross sweeping reforms, together with the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act, which strengthened FEMA’s independence and set greater requirements for its leaders.
Now, the letter argues, these reforms are being unraveled, because the Trump administration strikes to both abolish or drastically shrink FEMA’s function.
“Our shared commitment to our country, our oaths of office, and our mission of helping people before, during, and after disasters compel us to warn Congress and the American people of the cascading effects of decisions made by the current administration,” the letter states.
In May, Noem put in David Richardson – a former Marine fight veteran with no prior expertise managing pure disasters – to steer FEMA and crammed the agency’s entrance workplace with equally inexperienced aides.
Noem has additionally imposed strict new spending controls, requiring her private approval for any contract or grant over $100,000. The coverage proved problematic as FEMA groups tried to quickly reply to the lethal Texas floods in July. Without Noem’s immediate sign-off, FEMA couldn’t pre-position search and rescue groups or fulfill requests for aerial imagery. Thousands of desperate calls from survivors went unanswered after a contract for name middle employees lapsed.
According to the letter, roughly a 3rd of FEMA’s full-time employees has left this 12 months, together with many of the veteran leaders who helped rebuild the agency after Katrina.
At the identical time, DHS, as half of the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency effort, has slashed a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars} in nationwide preparedness funding that serves because the lifeblood of emergency administration infrastructure for native communities nationwide.
In June, Trump stated he plans to phase out FEMA after hurricane season. “We want to wean off of FEMA, and we want to bring it down to the state level,” he stated.
The Monday letter urges Congress to make FEMA a Cabinet-level, unbiased agency – insulated from political meddling and empowered to reply swiftly when catastrophe strikes.
The authors warn, “we hope (these changes) come in time to prevent not only another national catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina, but the effective dissolution of FEMA itself and the abandonment of the American people.”