FEMA staff warn reforms weaken disaster response

More than 180 current and former employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency have written to Congress warning that the agency’s capacity to respond to large disasters is being sharply reduced under the current administration. The letter, issued in the lead-up to the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, contends that plans to scale back FEMA and shift more responsibility—and costs—to states risk a repeat of the kind of failed federal response that prompted major reforms after Katrina. It also calls for structural changes, including elevating FEMA to cabinet-level status, and highlights leadership and staffing concerns within the agency.

The signatories describe a pattern of changes that they say undermine decades of progress in disaster management. They point to the departure of a large portion of FEMA’s permanent staff, including senior leaders, and the installation of acting administrators with limited emergency-management experience. They criticize policies that require prior approval for expenditures above set thresholds, arguing such controls slow rapid response when every minute counts. The letters also allege that some FEMA employees have been reassigned to...