FEMA suspends staff who signed a letter criticizing Trump

WASHINGTON — The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Tuesday suspended around 30 employees after those workers wrote to Congress warning that the Trump administration had gutted the nation’s ability to handle hurricanes, floods and other extreme weather disasters.

Of the 182 FEMA employees who signed the letter to Congress, 36 attached their names, while the rest withheld their identities for fear of retaliation.

Those who used their names received emails Tuesday night saying they had been placed on paid administrative leave “effective immediately, and continuing until further notice,” according to copies of the emails reviewed by The New York Times.

Colette Delawalla, the executive director of Stand Up for Science, an advocacy group that helped publicize the letter, said the move appeared to be an act of retaliation.

“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,” Delawalla said in a statement.

The letter to Congress rebuked President Donald Trump’s plan to drastically scale down FEMA and shift more responsibility for disaster response — and more costs — to the states. It was sent Monday, days before the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest and costliest storms ever to strike the United States.

“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 FEMA employees wrote.

They added that they hoped their warnings would “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 such an event would represent.”

Daniel Llargués, the acting FEMA press secretary, said in an email that “some of the same bureaucrats who presided over decades of inefficiency are now objecting to reform,” an apparent reference to the employees who signed the letter.

Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a nonprofit group that defends the rights of civil servants, said the Constitution protected the free speech of the FEMA workers. “They have strong First Amendment claims because they shared information that was already in the public domain; they weren’t revealing any confidential information in an inappropriate way,” he said.

The Trump administration has taken other actions against employees who have spoken out.

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