On August 25, 2025, a coalition of more than 180 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees delivered a stark warning to Congress: the agency’s ability to protect Americans from disasters is under threat, and the risk of another catastrophe on the scale of Hurricane Katrina is growing. Their letter, titled the “Katrina Declaration and Petition to Congress,” arrives just days before the 20th anniversary of the devastating hurricane that left an indelible mark on the nation’s memory and fundamentally reshaped emergency management policy.
The declaration, released through Stand Up for Science—a nonprofit that emerged in early 2025 following federal research funding cuts—outlines a litany of concerns. Among the most urgent: drastic staffing reductions, significant program cuts, delays in disaster mission assignments, and a wave of experienced personnel departing the agency. According to the letter, “Our shared commitment to our country, our oaths of office, and our mission of helping people before, during, and after disasters compel us to warn Congress and the American people of the cascading effects of decisions made by the current administration.”
The timing of the letter is no accident. Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall in August 2005, caused an estimated 1,833 deaths and $161 billion in damages across Louisiana and Mississippi, as reported by The New York Times. The slow and inadequate federal response led to a crisis of confidence in government and prompted Congress to pass the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act. That legislation set new standards for FEMA leadership, requiring agency heads to have proven emergency management experience and shielding FEMA from interference by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Yet, as the FEMA employees’ letter points out, the Trump administration has disregarded these reforms.
“The Trump administration had reversed much of the progress made in disaster response and recovery since Hurricane Katrina pummeled the Gulf Coast two decades ago,” the employees wrote in the Katrina Declaration, as cited by The New York Times. The letter criticizes President Trump’s plan to scale down FEMA and shift both responsibility and costs for disaster response to the states—a move that many fear could leave communities dangerously exposed.
One of the most alarming issues raised in the declaration is the agency’s shrinking workforce. Roughly one-third of FEMA’s full-time staff—about 2,000 employees—have left since Trump took office, including some of the agency’s most seasoned leaders. The loss of institutional knowledge, the letter argues, “harms the agency’s mission and could result in a disaster on the level of Hurricane Katrina,” according to The Washington Post. Of the 182 FEMA employees who signed the letter, only 36 attached their names, with the remainder choosing anonymity out of fear of retaliation. One organizer explained that many workers declined to sign publicly because they worried about being placed on administrative leave, as happened to 144 Environmental Protection Agency staffers after a similar protest letter.
The declaration also details how policy changes have slowed FEMA’s ability to support local responders during major incidents. In July 2025, for example, catastrophic flooding struck Kerrville, Texas. According to the letter, mission assignments were delayed for up to 72 hours, hampering relief efforts. The chief of FEMA’s Urban Search and Rescue branch resigned in the aftermath, citing those delays. Additionally, new spending rules imposed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have reportedly delayed hundreds of FEMA contracts, further undermining the agency’s response capacity.
Leadership inexperience is another flashpoint. The letter notes that President Trump appointed two successive acting FEMA administrators who lacked emergency management backgrounds, violating the requirements of the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act. The current acting head, David Richardson, rattled employees in June with a comment that he “did not know the United States had a hurricane season”—a statement the agency later dismissed as a joke, though it did little to reassure staff. Meanwhile, Secretary Noem’s direct intervention in FEMA operations has raised alarms about political interference in what should be a technically driven mission.
“We hope our warnings come in time 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,” the declaration reads. The letter’s authors urge Congress to take immediate action to protect the agency’s independence and mission.
The letter outlines six specific areas of opposition, including staffing reductions, program cuts, and delays in mission assignments. It also highlights the elimination of key preparedness initiatives. Programs like the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), the National Fire Academy, and the Youth Preparedness Council have been scaled back or eliminated, according to the declaration. The loss of these resources, FEMA employees argue, “limits the ability of state, local, tribal and territorial partners to effectively respond to disasters.”
Mitigation efforts have not been spared. The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, designed to help communities withstand future disasters, was eliminated, and funding for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program has been paused. Billions of dollars in FEMA grants have been slashed, and new requirements now force disaster survivors to provide email addresses to apply for aid—potentially excluding those with limited internet access from receiving vital assistance.
The petition calls on Congress to enact a series of protections for FEMA under the Lloyd-La Follette Act, including establishing FEMA as a cabinet-level independent agency, safeguarding its mission authority from outside interference, protecting employees from politically motivated firings, and demanding transparency regarding future workforce and program reductions.
As the Atlantic hurricane season continues—so far relatively quiet, but with forecasters warning of potential storms supercharged by climate change—FEMA employees say the stakes could not be higher. The Katrina Declaration concludes with a dedication: “We dedicate this Katrina Declaration and Petition to 1) every life lost from disasters, 2) to the survivors who endured and rebuilt, 3) to every first responder and public servant who places service above self, and 4) to all the federal partners who serve alongside us to deliver our mission. Their sacrifices and courage strengthen our commitment to speak the truth, sound the alarm, and defend our mission of helping people before, during and after disasters.”
The fate of FEMA now rests with Congress and the American public, as agency employees sound the alarm and call for urgent action to preserve the nation’s disaster response capabilities.
