Some FEMA workers signed letters criticizing agencies for cutting letters and placed guidance during leave | Trump administration

Some employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) signed an open letter earlier this week, according to documents reviewed by the Associated Press.

More than 180 current FEMA employees signed letters to the FEMA Review Committee and Congress on Monday, criticizing the recent layoffs to agencies and planned, and warning that FEMA’s ability to respond to major disasters has dangerously reduced.

Thirty-five signatures, while 141 people signed anonymously because they were worried about retribution.

The Associated Press has confirmed that at least two signatories were notified Tuesday night that they would be on paid leave indefinitely and that they still have to check every morning to confirm their availability. The status of other signatories is not yet known.

The notice said the decision was “not disciplined, nor was it intended to be punitive.”

FEMA did not immediately answer questions about how many staff members were notified and whether they were related to the letter.

The Washington Post first reported that some FEMA employees are on vacation.

The letter of objection contains six “opposition statements” to FEMA’s current policy, including a spending approval policy, which Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem must approve contracts over $100,000, and the signatories said the signatories reduced FEMA’s ability to perform its mission.

It also criticized the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to reassign some FEMA employees to immigration and customs enforcement, fail to appoint qualified FEMA administrators under the law, and cut mitigation programs, prepare for training and the FEMA workforce.

FEMA spokesman Daniel Llargués said in an email, Trump administration “Accountability and reform have been made a priority so that taxpayers’ money actually covers the people and communities they are designed to help”.

“No wonder some of the bureaucrats who have presided over decades of inefficiency now oppose reform,” Lalgis said. “Changes are always difficult.”

Staff at other agencies, including the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency, issued similar statements. About 140 EPA staff were on administrative holidays signing letters of objection.