FEMA employees are sounding the alarm on staff cuts: ‘States are not ready’

Michael Shell spent nine years deploying to disaster zones across America, criss-crossing the country to respond to tornadoes, floods, and hurricanes. The list of deployments is extensive: Florida after Hurricane Irma, North Carolina after Hurricane Florence, California after the Camp Fire, Louisiana after Hurricane Laura, New Jersey after Hurricane Ida, and Kentucky after the Mayfield tornado. Then, last month, with no warning, he received a terse email in the middle of the workday, giving him five hours to pack up and leave.

Those who are part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)’s Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery (CORE) staff make up four out of 10 of the agency’s employees. They are the backbone of the long-term response and recovery following a disaster — from helping communities impacted by 2017’s monster hurricanes to being part of the search team after the Camp Mystic flood.

They are the FEMA staff who remain on the ground for months, if not years, after a disaster, assisting disaster survivors, coordinating the removal of debris, and documenting damage to government infrastructure that may be eligible for FEMA funding. They’re the ones getting resources directly into the hands of survivors to make sure that roads are re-opened, schools are repaired after flooding, and water treatment plants are back up and running.

What would happen without CORE staff?

Now, the Department of Homeland Security has plans to cut approximately half of FEMA’s staff, as part of the Trump administration’s unlawful efforts to decimate and reorganize the federal government. FEMA is already understaffed by over a third. As more federal employees are suddenly let go, projects are being abandoned. For example, CORE employees were working to build a Direct Housing Service Center, so disaster survivors in need of temporary housing, anywhere in the country, could have a direct line to call. Now, this project is being abandoned as the employees needed to run it are being cut.

It doesn’t take much to imagine the impact further staff cuts would have. According to former FEMA Chief of Staff Michael Coen, further staff reductions at FEMA would be “devastating.” Even current staffing levels are insufficient. In 2017, the agency was forced to pull employees out of providing relief after the Hurricane Harvey disaster to send them to Puerto Rico to respond to Hurricane Maria.

These staff cuts will be felt directly by people affected by crises, just when they need help the most. A training specialist for CORE who staffed a FEMA call center — who worked around the clock, seven days a week in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria in 2017 — described answering the phone to people who had been waiting on the line for 19 hours. Some were even snoring because they had to stay on the line through the night to speak to a FEMA employee. Further cuts would mean that there may no longer be anyone at all on the other end of the line.

The legal fight to stop CORE staff cuts

We’re fighting this in court. Public Rights Project represents a group of local governments that had already sued the federal government for its unlawful attempts to reorganize the public service in AFGE v. Trump. Alongside Democracy Forward, Altshuler Berzon LLP, Protect Democracy, and State Democracy Defenders Fund, which represent other union and nonprofit plaintiffs, we recently filed a supplemental complaint in the case to challenge these planned staffing cuts within FEMA. This month, plaintiffs asked for a court order that would halt the staffing cuts and reinstate recently separated employees.

We’re also engaged in separate litigation (Chicago v. Noem and Santa Clara County v. Noem) to protect over $800 million in emergency and disaster response funding. These are federal funds that the federal administration is attempting to condition on local governments submitting to unrelated and unlawful conditions that would treat pro-diversity policies as discrimination. Losing this funding in our cities would result in firefighters not having the hazmat gear they need when emergencies arise; mass transit systems being left vulnerable to terrorist threats; and SWAT teams not being properly trained.

Whether it be the people who help communities recover from disaster, or the equipment and training first responders need to prevent and respond to crises, the federal government’s actions would remove the safety net that prevents the worst from happening. Now, thanks to the efforts of local governments, it will be up to the courts to decide if it can do so.