ICYMI: FEMA Acting Administrator Defends Reckless Cuts to FEMA Staffing

WASHINGTON, D.C. — While testifying at a House Appropriations hearing Thursday, FEMA’s acting administrator, Karen Evans, defended the termination of over 1,000 disaster response employees, claiming their work simply "wasn't needed." Evans noted that she personally approved the non-renewal. 

Since January, Sabotaging Our Safety has warned about the devastating impact of cutting FEMA's Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery (CORE) program - specialists who once made up 40% of the agency's workforce and traveled across the country to handle disaster-recovery efforts. Then-Secretary Noem was forced to pause the cuts ahead of January's winter storms, effectively admitting their impact was too severe to risk during an active emergency - a telling acknowledgment. 

Read more below. 

NOTUS: FEMA Official Defends Cuts to Disaster-Response Staff at Agency

“A top official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency defended the decision to terminate hundreds of employees critical to disaster-recovery-and-response operations.

FEMA’s acting administrator, Karen Evans, who took the role in December, said at a House Appropriations hearing Thursday on the Department of Homeland Security’s budget that she signed off on the terminations because other supervisors at the agency determined the work was not needed…

Underwood said in the hearing that more than 1,000 Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery, or CORE, employees across the agency had been eliminated under the Trump administration.

The employees started receiving emails toward the end of last year saying their positions wouldn’t be “renewed.”

CORE employees, who at one point made up 40% of the agency’s workforce and often traveled across the country to handle disaster-recovery efforts, were the main targets of these cuts. These employees’ responsibilities include providing advice to FEMA leadership on approving funds and working on the technology states rely on after a disaster.

Ahead of January’s winter storms, FEMA staff were told that the terminations would be halted in preparation for the severe weather. The storms left more than 600,000 without power, and left some Southern lawmakers unsure whether they could dependably rely on the agency to provide additional assistance. There was also concern that fewer points of contact would be left on the ground for affected communities after a disaster.

News outlets reported in February that the reductions would resume following the winter storm.”

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