Post-Katrina safeguards being eroded at FEMA, employees warn
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Acting FEMA administrator David Richardson testifies in the Rayburn House Office Building on July 23 in Washington, D.C. Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
President Trump's budget cuts to disaster preparedness are a departure from response improvements made in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, FEMA employees warn.
The big picture: President Trump's plan to scale down the Federal Emergency Management Agency and shift more responsibility to the states — combined with eliminating climate change research, unsteady leadership and other reductions — put people and property at risk, employees warned.
- Katrina was responsible for the deaths of nearly 1,400 people, Axios New Orleans' Chelsea Brasted reports, and displaced hundreds of thousands.
- The Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 (PKEMRA) targeted shortfalls in preparation and response that were exposed by the storm.
Driving the news: In a new "Katrina Declaration" and petition to Congress, dozens of FEMA employees from across the U.S. warned the agency is "enacting processes and leadership structures that echo the conditions PKEMRA was designed to prevent."
- The letter, addressed to members of Trump's Federal Emergency Management Agency Review Council and congressional leaders, rebuked changes staffers say reduce FEMA's capabilities, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's reported contract and grant reviews.
What they're saying: FEMA acting press secretary Daniel Llargues said in a statement provided to Axios that "[i]t is not surprising that some of the same bureaucrats who presided over decades of inefficiency are now objecting to reform."
- "Change is always hard," he continued. "It is especially for those invested in the status quo. But our obligation is to survivors, not to protecting broken systems."
Zoom out: The letter states that since January, staff members have been operating under unqualified leadership, the dangers of which it says were a "significant lesson learned from Hurricane Katrina."
- Cameron Hamilton, the former acting head of FEMA, was fired in May after he opposed dismantling the agency. David Richardson, who took over leadership, had no experience managing natural disasters, Axios' Carlie Kollath Wells notes.
- The signers admonished the gutting of a pre-disaster mitigation program, workforce losses, the removal of environmental data from public access and other cuts.
- A federal judge this month blocked the administration from reallocating billions meant to protect communities from natural disasters, granting a preliminary injunction sought by 20 states.
Context: As extreme weather events become more frequent and intense, Trump is aiming to have FEMA "remade," according to Noem. The president previously floated "getting rid of" the agency.
- Days after assuming office, the president signed an executive order calling for the creation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency Review Council to review FEMA and recommend changes. Only Congress could fully terminate FEMA.
- The letter expresses hope the staffers' warnings "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."
Go deeper: Governors accuse Trump admin of stalling disaster recovery
