A group of current and former Federal Emergency Management Agency officials warned Congress on Monday that the Trump administration’s sweeping changes to the disaster relief agency could reverse decades of reforms made after Hurricane Katrina.
The open letter was released as the U.S. this week marks 20 years since Katrina’s 2005 landfall — sparking one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, with more than 1,800 deaths and over $200 billion in damage in today’s dollars.
The letter argues the Trump administration — which has sought to dramatically shrink FEMA and floated scrapping the agency altogether — had made decisions that “hinder the swift execution of our mission.” It states that a change in course is necessary to “prevent not only another national catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina, but the effective dissolution of FEMA itself and the abandonment of the American people such an event would represent.”
Released by the advocacy group Stand Up for Science, the “Katrina Declaration” says it has 181 signatories. Only 35 people signed their names to the letter, with the rest opting for anonymity due to “the culture of fear and suppression cultivated by this administration.”
It’s addressed to several congressional committees and the FEMA Review Council, which was formed by President Trump earlier this year.
The declaration alleges that Mr. Trump’s picks to lead FEMA “lack proper qualifications,” and decries the Trump administration for cutting FEMA’s staff.
“Since January 2025, FEMA has been under the leadership of individuals lacking legal qualifications, Senate approval, and the demonstrated background required of a FEMA Administrator,” the open letter reads.
It also castigates FEMA for terminating grants meant to help state and local governments prepare their infrastructures to withstand natural disasters and extreme weather. Two-thirds of the counties that have received those grants voted for Mr. Trump over former Vice President Kamala Harris, a CBS News investigation found earlier this year. A federal judge blocked cuts to the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC, program earlier this month.
In response to the letter, FEMA acting press secretary Daniel Llargues said the Department of Homeland Security is “committed to ensuring FEMA delivers for the American people.” He said the agency has been “bogged down by red tape, inefficiency, and outdated processes,” and defended the Trump administration’s handling of natural disasters so far this year.
“The Trump Administration has made accountability and reform a priority so that taxpayer dollars actually reach the people and communities they are meant to help,” Llargues said. “It is not surprising that some of the same bureaucrats who presided over decades of inefficiency are now objecting to reform. Change is always hard. It is especially for those invested in the status quo. But our obligation is to survivors, not to protecting broken systems.”
FEMA has faced months of upheaval since Mr. Trump’s return to office.
Days after his inauguration, the president floated either “getting rid of FEMA” or “fundamentally reforming and overhauling” the agency, casting it as overly bureaucratic and arguing that state and local governments should take on a larger role in managing natural disasters. In June, Mr. Trump said he’s looking to “wean” states off of FEMA.
The White House has proposed cutting FEMA’s budget for non-disaster grants by $646 million in the next fiscal year. The Trump administration is asking Congress to approve a $36.2 billion budget for FEMA, up from $33.1 billion in the fiscal year 2025 budget.
So far this year, FEMA has lost about one-third of its staff through a combination of firings and buyouts, and the administration has overhauled the contract renewal system for more than two-thirds of FEMA’s workforce, CBS News has previously reported.
The agency has had two acting leaders since Mr. Trump returned to office. Christopher Hamilton led the agency until May, when he was fired after saying he didn’t support eliminating FEMA. His successor, David Richardson, introduced himself to staff by warning them during an all-hands meeting, “don’t get in my way,” and suggesting he will “run right over” people he believes are subverting the president’s agenda, CBS News has reported.
The leadership change came weeks before the June 1 start of the Atlantic hurricane season. One review from May found the agency was “not ready” for hurricane season.
