Federal judge rules Trump plan to halve FEMA workforce unlawful

A federal judge ruled on September 12 that the Trump administration acted unlawfully when it ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cut its workforce roughly in half, siding with labor groups that sued to stop the reductions.

US District Judge Susan Illston, based in California, found that the Department of Homeland Security exceeded its legal authority over FEMA’s staffing. Illston wrote that DHS failed to provide a “reasoned” explanation for restricting the agency’s ability to renew contracts with the temporary reservists who deploy after hurricanes, wildfires and floods.

The ruling cites a post-Hurricane Katrina federal law that Illston said bars DHS from substantially or significantly reducing FEMA’s authority, responsibilities or functions. The case was brought by labor groups representing federal workers after DHS moved to shrink FEMA from roughly 22,766 employees to a projected 11,383 for the coming fiscal year.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the dispute centers on thousands of temporary FEMA reservists whose contracts the administration stopped renewing. Those reservists make up a large share of the agency’s disaster-response capacity, deploying to help communities with debris removal, temporary housing and direct aid after federally declared disasters.

Illston’s order does not immediately reverse the staffing cuts or impose penalties on the administration. Instead, she directed both sides to confer on what relief is appropriate and report back to the court by October 9, with a further decision expected next month.

President Trump has repeatedly questioned whether FEMA should continue to exist in its current form and has said states should take on more responsibility for disaster preparedness and response. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has overseen the push to shrink the agency’s staff.

The lawsuit is one of several ongoing legal challenges from federal employee unions to Trump administration workforce policies. Separately, the American Federation of Government Employees and three other unions sued the Office of Personnel Management in August over new rules that change how federal employees are evaluated, disciplined and removed, arguing the rules bypass the Civil Service Reform Act.

Hurricane season in the Atlantic runs through November 30. FEMA’s reservist workforce is typically expanded, not reduced, during the final months of the season when storm activity has historically peaked.

Illston’s opinion also faulted DHS officials for their use of the Signal messaging app to discuss the staffing decision, noting that messages were set to auto-delete. Federal agencies are generally required to preserve records of official decision-making under the Federal Records Act, and auto-deleting messages can complicate that preservation.

FEMA reservists are intermittent federal employees activated on an as-needed basis to support disaster response, including processing individual assistance applications, running temporary housing programs and staffing disaster recovery centers. Cutting the pool of reservists does not eliminate FEMA’s permanent staff, but it narrows the surge capacity the agency has relied on to respond to multiple simultaneous disasters.

The case is one of several pending challenges to how the Trump administration has restructured DHS and FEMA staffing since the start of the year. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said the changes are intended to push more disaster response responsibility onto state and local governments, while critics, including the labor groups that brought this suit, argue the reductions leave the country less prepared heading into the remainder of hurricane season.

Both sides are due back in front of Illston by October 9 to report on what relief, if any, the court should order regarding the staffing cuts already made.