The Federal Emergency Management Agency has moved to address staffing issues that triggered concern and uncertainty among and about its workforce, including reinstating employees put on leave for publicly opposing agency policies, and extending contracts for some workers whose terms were set to expire soon.
Fourteen FEMA employees who signed a public letter of dissent last August sounding alarms about the nation’s disaster preparedness were reinstated after being put on paid administrative leave for eight months, according to two FEMA staff members.
They were among over 190 current and former FEMA employees who signed the letter but were the only active employees who included their names. The letter, known as the “Katrina Declaration,” called out multiple policy decisions by President Donald Trump’s administration that the signatories said risked a catastrophe like the one seen after Hurricane Katrina.
“I feel pretty vindicated, and like we did the right thing,” said Abby McIlraith, a FEMA emergency management specialist who is among the reinstated workers. The group received emails Wednesday informing them that an investigation into that matter was closed and instructing them to return to work Thursday, she said. Their reinstatement was first reported by NBC News.
FEMA leadership also told some employees this week that it will be extending certain term-limited employees’ contracts, according to documents seen by The Associated Press, after extended uncertainty over the future of those positions.
The decisions are the latest indications that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is moving away from the harsher approach toward FEMA taken by his predecessor, Kristi Noem, before she was fired as DHS leader.
Mullin quickly reversed Noem’s policy that her office approve any DHS expenditure over $100,000 and has released more than $1 billion in backlogged FEMA grants and reimbursements to states, tribes and territories since being sworn in last month.
A FEMA spokesperson told The Associated Press that while it does not comment on specific personnel actions, the agency is taking “targeted steps to stabilize our workforce and strengthen readiness” as it prepares for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season and the FIFA World Cup, both beginning in June.
“Under new leadership, FEMA is addressing outstanding personnel actions to ensure workforce stability and a strong, deployable surge force for upcoming national events and potential disasters,” the spokesperson said.
Dissent letter called out controversial policies
The $100,000 approval policy was one of several actions called out in the dissent letter, released Aug. 25 of last year. Others included the DHS decision to reassign some FEMA employees to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the failure to appoint a qualified FEMA administrator as stipulated by law, and cuts to mitigation programs, preparedness training and the FEMA workforce.
The letter also called for FEMA to be taken out from under DHS and restored to a Cabinet-level agency.
One day after the letter’s release, the 14 staffers were put on indefinite paid administrative leave. They were reinstated in early December only to suddenly be placed on leave again after one day. A DHS spokesperson at the time blamed “bureaucrats acting outside of their authority” for the reinstatement.
McIlraith, 24, said that experience left her feeling slightly tentative that their reinstatement would be permanent this time. Nonetheless, she was back at work at a FEMA office in Maryland Thursday, waiting to regain access to her work devices. She called her time away “a waste of taxpayer dollars.”
Pressed by Democratic Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey about the suspended staffers’ fate in his Senate confirmation hearing last month, Mullin called whistleblower retaliation unlawful and vowed to work “within the law.”
Internal email indicates extensions for some term-limited employees
The possible contract extensions also announced this week will apply to some of FEMA’s Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employees, or CORE, which make up roughly half the agency’s staff. More than 10,000 CORE work on term-limited assignments of two-to-four years, a system that allows the agency to build up and taper down its capacity as needed.
FEMA abruptly stopped renewing some of those CORE employees’ contracts at the start of 2026 as they expired, and extended others only 90 days. An ongoing lawsuit is challenging the dismissals of hundreds of CORE staff between then and late January, when FEMA paused the nonrenewals.
An email to some staff this week said COREs with contracts that end between January and May 2026 who were previously extended for 90 days “may be reappointed for up to one year,” along with those whose contracts end after May.
The email also said that “eligible” FEMA reservists will be renewed for two years. The 7,000 reservists in the agency’s surge workforce have contracts expiring May 2.
“Our readiness directly impacts our ability to help Americans in need,” the email said, “and every employee plays a critical role in meeting these challenges.”
While FEMA has not confirmed whether it will bring back CORE whose contracts weren’t renewed, a FEMA employee familiar with the matter told The Associated Press that at least one CORE has been called back. The employee requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.
McIlraith said her apprehensions over FEMA’s future persist as the agency continues operating without a permanent administrator and recovers from the record-long DHS shutdown that ended Thursday.
Trump on Thursday signed a bill that funds all aspects of DHS besides immigration enforcement. The bill will replenish FEMA’s dwindling disaster fund with over $26 billion.
The president has repeatedly criticized FEMA and even threatened to abolish it completely. Next week, the Trump-appointed FEMA Review Council will present its highly anticipated and months-overdue recommendation report. It is expected to propose sweeping changes to the agency.
Gabriela Aoun Angueira, The Associated Press
