Fema employees who criticized Trump cuts reinstated after months on leave

Fourteen employees with the US Federal Emergency Management Agency returned to work this week, after spending eight months on administrative leave for signing a public letter criticising the Trump administration . The so-called “Katrina declaration”, sent last August to members of Congress and a federal council formed to help determine Fema’s future, was written as a rebuke from the workers about the dangerous erosion in US capacity to prepare for and respond to natural disasters. Timed with the 20th anniversary of Katrina, the catastrophic storm that killed 1,833 people and devastated parts of New Orleans and the Gulf coast in 2005, it served as a warning that the stage was set for history to repeat itself. More than 190 current and former Fema employees signed on to the letter. Thirty-six signed their names. Those who were still actively employed at the agency were put on indefinite paid administrative leave one day later. The group was reinstated briefly in December before being returned to leave, a hiccup a DHS spokesperson at the time blamed on “bureaucrats acting outside of their authority”. Abby McIlraith, a Fema emergency management specialist who is among the reinstated workers, said the group received emails on Wednesday instructing them to return to work. On Thursday she was back at the Fema office in Maryland, waiting to regain access to her work devices. “I feel pretty vindicated,” she said. …