Emails Suggest Plan to Gut FEMA's Workforce

Internal planning documents suggest the federal government is weighing steep cuts to the frontline ranks of FEMA, even as the agency and its parent department publicly insist no such downsizing is underway. The Washington Post and CNN report that Department of Homeland Security emails circulated in late December outlined possible reductions of more than 4,300 jobs in FEMA's disaster-focused Cadre of On-Call Response and Recovery (CORE) workforce—about 41% of that group—along with an 85% cut to "surge" staff, or roughly 6,500 positions. Those roles include many of the first federal responders to hurricanes, wildfires, and other emergencies, and the people who remain on the ground for years to manage long-term recovery.

Initial layoffs of about 65 CORE staffers reportedly began on New Year's Eve, despite DHS publicly describing January terminations as a "routine staff adjustment" affecting 50 employees. FEMA spokesperson Daniel Llargués said the spreadsheets described in the leaked emails are part of a "pre-decisional workforce planning exercise," not an active mandate to cut personnel, and that the agency has "not issued and is not implementing a percentage-based workforce reduction." But multiple FEMA officials told the Post the numbers align with targets pushed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who has previously argued for slashing the agency's workforce by about half and has recently taken direct control over renewals of multiyear CORE appointments—a process historically handled inside FEMA.

Current and former FEMA officials warn that shrinking the disaster workforce on this scale could slow aid, imperil ongoing recovery projects, and run afoul of laws passed after Hurricane Katrina that bar DHS from significantly weakening FEMA's role. One veteran official called the moves "not just unprecedented" but in conflict with the law, while an emergency management historian said such a cut would effectively reverse an act of Congress "without an act of Congress."

The uncertainty is a challenge, too. "Imagine trying to plan for a catastrophic situation and being told you may or may not have 50% of your staff available," one FEMA official tells CNN. The Post reports that as some employees learned on New Year's Eve that their jobs were gone, supervisors told human resources they believed terminations were a mistake—only to be informed the decisions were out of HR's hands.