Federal Judge Says Trump Plan to Halve FEMA Workforce Was Unlawful
A federal judge ruled Friday that the Trump administration acted unlawfully last year in pursuing a plan to cut the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) workforce roughly in half and improperly stripped the disaster agency of authority over key personnel decisions.
In a 32-page order, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, a President Bill Clinton appointee, wrote that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unlawfully took control of FEMA staffing decisions, directed a plan to reduce the agency's workforce from about 23,000 employees to roughly 11,500, and blocked the renewal of hundreds of temporary disaster-response workers. FEMA is part of DHS.
The ruling stems from a lawsuit brought by federal employee unions and comes amid broader disputes over the Trump administration's efforts to shrink the federal workforce. President Donald Trump has argued that states should assume greater responsibility for disaster preparedness and response, and has previously suggested FEMA could eventually be eliminated as part of a broader restructuring of federal disaster management. In January 2025, shortly after taking office, Trump said, "I think, frankly, FEMA is not good."
Newsweek has reached out to FEMA and DHS for comment via email on Saturday. Newsweek has filled out a contact request form with American Federation of Government Employees, the country's largest federal employee union and a party to the case, on Saturday.
In the lawsuit, unions argue the FEMA cuts are unlawful because they would weaken the agency's disaster-response capabilities, were not authorized by Congress and were directed by DHS leadership rather than originating within FEMA. The lawsuit alleges that then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and other DHS officials improperly exercised authority over FEMA staffing decisions.
“Supervisors within FEMA, and FEMA’s Chief Human Capital Officer at the time, did not agree with the 50% staffing cut,” court documents state, adding that evidence indicates that DHS members worked to “submit a FEMA annual staffing plan that included a 50% cut, over the objections and analyses of FEMA’s own supervisors.”
Illston stated that DHS "acted unlawfully in usurping FEMA's authority over its personnel" and found that federal officials violated post-Katrina reforms designed to preserve FEMA's independence within DHS.
The ruling was issued Friday by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. In June, the judge declined to immediately halt the job cuts, stating that FEMA had temporarily stopped the cuts.
In a separate ruling, Illston faulted FEMA and DHS officials for using the messaging app Signal on their personal cellphones and deleting messages related to the staffing cuts. The judge wrote that the court would presume "the lost Signal messages would have been unfavorable to Defendants because they would have been further evidence of Defendants’ plan, DHS’s control, and Defendants’ implementing actions."
FEMA was created in 1979 to coordinate the federal government's response to natural disasters and other emergencies, including hurricanes, floods, wildfires, tornadoes and other large-scale emergencies.
Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Congress created the DHS in 2002 and transferred FEMA into the new department the following year.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, killing more than 1,300 people and causing nearly $100 billion in damage. In the aftermath, a White House review found that DHS processes were “far too bureaucratic to support the response to a catastrophe” and that DHS had spread FEMA’s “planning and coordination capabilities and responsibilities among DHS’s other offices and bureaus,” per the court documents reviewed by Newsweek.
Congress responded by passing the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act. The law established FEMA as a "distinct entity" within DHS, placed responsibility for FEMA personnel and operations to the agency itself, limited the DHS secretary's ability to reorganize FEMA and prohibited DHS from substantially reducing the agency's authorities, responsibilities or functions without congressional authorization.
The ruling comes as hurricane season remains underway, a time when FEMA plays a central role in disaster response and recovery efforts after major storms, floods and other emergencies.
The ruling did not include any remedies or penalties. If the parties cannot agree, they must submit a joint filing outlining the remaining disputes by October 9. Illston said she will issue a separate ruling on what relief, if any, should be ordered.
Contact Newsweek editors for this story: Hollie Silverman and Anthony Murray.
