U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ruled that the Trump administration’s plan to cut Federal Emergency Management Agency staffing by 50% was unlawful in an opinion issued late Friday. The planned reductions were ultimately not carried out, and Illston directed the parties to meet and determine a course of relief rather than ordering a specific remedy.
The ruling was a victory for the American Federation of Government Employees and other labor groups that sued as part of a broader challenge to Trump administration efforts to reduce the federal workforce. The groups argued that Department of Homeland Security plans violated congressional protections intended to preserve FEMA’s independence.
Illston wrote that senior Homeland Security officials directed FEMA’s leadership late last year to submit a staffing plan containing a 50% cut despite objections from the agency’s own supervisors. She found that the government violated rules enacted after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 that placed staffing decisions with FEMA rather than DHS and prevented DHS from “substantially” reducing FEMA’s “functions.”
“Frankly, the FEMA staffing plan number appears as if pulled from thin air,” Illston wrote.
FEMA has experienced terminations even though the proposed 50% reduction did not take effect. In recent months, following leadership changes at FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security, the agency has rehired some employees who had been dismissed.
The Department of Homeland Security and FEMA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Illston’s direction that the parties agree on relief leaves the practical consequences of her opinion to be determined.