Overview

• More than 180 current and former employees, including 35 named and 146 anonymous signatories, released the "Katrina Declaration" warning that recent decisions are undoing post-Katrina reforms.
• The signatories cite leadership without emergency-management experience, naming acting chief David Richardson, alongside departures equaling about one-third of FEMA’s full-time staff.
• Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s requirement to personally approve spending over $100,000 is blamed for slowing the July Texas flood response, including unanswered survivor calls and delayed search-and-rescue deployments.
• The letter lists six objections, including reassignment of FEMA personnel to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and cuts to mitigation programs, preparedness training, grants, and the disaster workforce.
• The authors back bipartisan proposals to make FEMA a Cabinet-level independent agency and ask Congress to shield employees from politically motivated firings.