US disaster response agency employees put on leave after criticizing Trump administration

ISTANBUL

More than a dozen employees from the United States’ federal disaster response agency were put on administrative leave Tuesday evening after warning that recent leadership changes could undermine the agency’s effectiveness.

In a letter titled the “Katrina Declaration,” around 180 current and former Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees appealed to Congress earlier this week, saying the agency’s current leadership lacks experience and is threatening its mission.

Following the letter, FEMA placed several employees on administrative leave, saying they would remain in a non-duty status while continuing to receive pay and benefits.

“It is not surprising that some of the same bureaucrats who presided over decades of inefficiency are now objecting to reform,” Daniel Llargues, acting FEMA press secretary, told The New York Times.

The letter accused US President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem of weakening FEMA’s authority, installing unqualified leaders and politicizing its operations.

It urged Congress to shield FEMA from political interference and protect staff from politically motivated dismissals.

The employees said they hoped their warning 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.”

Hurricane Katrina was one of the most devastating natural disasters in US history. Its failed response led Congress to pass the 2006 Post-Katrina Emergency Reform Act, which the letter warned is now being dismantled.