ICYMI: SOS Warns Against FEMA Cuts
The New York Times: “‘You cannot gut the agency responsible for disaster response and expect it to function at its best when the next hurricane, wildfire or flood hits,’ said Rafael Lemaitre, a former FEMA official now serving on the advisory council of an advocacy group called Sabotaging Our Safety.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week, new reporting revealed that senior FEMA leaders were tasked with an agency-wide “workforce capacity planning exercise” targeting a potential 50% reduction in FEMA’s workforce in a leaked memo. The news follows the shocking revelation that the Trump administration kicked off the New Year by firing dozens of FEMA disaster response and recovery employees, and warning FEMA staff that more than 1,000 will be eliminated by the end of January.
Sabotaging Our Safety Advisory Council Member Rafael Lemaitre called out the administration for its deliberate plan to decimate FEMA’s workforce.
See coverage below:
The New York Times: FEMA Staff Bracing for Dismissal of 1,000 Disaster Workers
Critics of the Trump administration’s approach to disaster response said further cuts to FEMA staffing would put Americans at risk.
“You cannot gut the agency responsible for disaster response and expect it to function at its best when the next hurricane, wildfire or flood hits,” said Rafael Lemaitre, a former FEMA official now serving on the advisory council of an advocacy group called Sabotaging Our Safety.
FEMA’s staffing dropped significantly through firings and early retirements in the first year of this Trump administration. Briefings on FEMA operations across the country issued each day show the agency’s work force is more than 20 percent smaller than it was a year ago, down to 23,000 employees from nearly 29,000.
FOX 13 News: DHS considering FEMA cuts as president’s review commission still waits to present findings
Michael Pressly Bobbitt of Cedar Key — which was decimated by Hurricane Helene — said FEMA workers were critical in the aftermath of the storm. He said FEMA workers were on hand with a mobile command center, who worked closely with city leaders and homeowners to identify those in need and to distribute aid, including food, housing and reimbursement checks.
"FEMA, especially, was critical and being able to help mobilize the forces to just make the place safe for people to come back to their homes," he said…
Bobbitt — who was put forward by "Sabotaging our Safety," a group that has been warning of the Trump Administration's plans for FEMA — is especially concerned about reports that said the Homeland Security Secretary is preparing to not renew the contracts of around 1,000 FEMA workers in charge of response and recovery, or "CORE" workers.
"To cut back on that very core, a small group of full-time employees that works every day to make sure the agency is prepared is potentially catastrophic," said former FEMA Director of Public Affairs Rafael Lemaitre.
Federal News Network: Concerns mount over FEMA staff reductions
CORE staff are often among the first FEMA employees to be deployed in a disaster, according to Rafael LeMaitre, a former FEMA director of public affairs who now serves on the advisory council for the advocacy group Sabotaging Our Safety.
“While they serve two-year contract terms, those are routinely renewed, because the number of disasters that the nation has been dealing with has not gone down,” LeMaitre said. “If anything, it’s increased, both in the number of disasters and the severity of disasters, given changes to the climate, and frankly, additional pressures that FEMA has been put under to respond to non-traditional types of emergencies.”
But the FEMA supervisors also described how, contrary to the recent non-renewals, decisions about extending CORE appointments are typically done on a case-by-case basis. The process typically includes an analysis of the employee’s workload and the need for them to continue working on a given disaster.
