Nearly 200 current and former Federal Emergency Management Agency employees have issued a warning to Congress: leadership decisions under the Trump administration are undermining the agency’s disaster response capabilities and could lead to catastrophic failures similar to Hurricane Katrina.
The letter, titled the “Katrina Declaration and Petition to Congress,” was released Monday on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which killed approximately 1,833 people and caused $161 billion in damage. The 181 signatories, including 35 who publicly endorsed the statement and 146 who signed anonymously due to what they describe as a “culture of fear and suppression,” warn that current policies could result in “not only another national catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina, but the effective dissolution of FEMA itself.”
The employees’ primary concern centers on the agency’s current leadership structure. Since January 2025, FEMA has been led by acting administrators who lack the qualifications mandated by the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 (PKEMRA). The current acting administrator, David Richardson, is a former Marine artillery officer with no prior emergency management experience. Richardson replaced Cameron Hamilton in May 2025, who was fired one day after testifying to Congress that he opposed eliminating FEMA.
PKEMRA requires that the FEMA administrator be “appointed from among individuals who have a demonstrated ability in and knowledge of emergency management and homeland security” and “not less than 5 years of executive leadership and management experience”. Richardson’s appointment violates these statutory requirements, according to the letter.
The declaration outlines six specific areas of opposition to current Trump administration policies at FEMA. The most significant concern involves Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s requirement that she personally approve all contracts, grants, and mission assignments over $100,000. This policy, implemented in June 2025, has created what FEMA employees describe as dangerous delays in disaster response.
The policy’s impact became evident during the deadly July 2025 floods in Kerrville, Texas, where mission assignments were delayed up to 72 hours. The flooding, which killed at least 135 people statewide, prompted FEMA’s Urban Search and Rescue Branch Chief to resign, citing these delays as the cause. The Guadalupe River rose 26 feet in 45 minutes during the disaster, making rapid response crucial.
The letter reveals that one-third of FEMA’s full-time staff have departed the agency in 2025. Hiring freezes and the reassignment of FEMA employees to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have compounded staffing shortages, leaving critical disaster response operations understaffed at a time when climate-driven emergencies are escalating.
Critical preparedness programs have also been eliminated or reduced, including the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, which was terminated without public notice despite congressional appropriations. The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program and the National Fire Academy have faced significant cuts or suspensions. These mitigation programs typically save $6 for every $1 invested, according to the letter.
Beginning in February 2025, FEMA employees were directed to remove climate change-related information from both public-facing and internal documents. The Future Risk Index, which helps communities understand disaster risks, was removed from FEMA’s website. This action violates the Community Disaster Resilience Zones Act of 2022, which requires maintaining publicly accessible risk information.
President Trump has announced plans to phase out or possibly dismantle FEMA following the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, shifting most disaster response responsibilities to individual states.
The employees’ petition to Congress requests four specific actions: establishing FEMA as a cabinet-level independent agency, defending it from Department of Homeland Security interference, protecting employees from politically motivated firings, and demanding transparency about future workforce reductions. The signatories invoke the Lloyd-La Follette Act, which protects federal employees’ right to petition Congress.
