Judge Blocks Trump Administration's FEMA Staffing Cut Plan
The judge said the staffing target was arbitrary and ordered both sides to negotiate relief after finding evidence of deleted Signal messages.
- On Friday, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ruled that the Trump administration acted unlawfully by ordering the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cut its workforce by half, usurping the Department of Homeland Security's authority over FEMA's own personnel.
- Homeland Security pushed FEMA to reduce its roughly 23,000 employees to about 11,500 by fiscal year 2026, though internal documents revealed the strategy to cut the workforce by 50 percent lacked any reasoned basis.
- Judge Illston wrote that the staffing target "appears as if pulled from thin air," while also faulting officials for using the Signal app to delete messages with auto-delete timers, presuming those lost texts would have hurt the government's case.
- Friday's ruling did not include immediate penalties or remedies, but the court ordered both sides to confer on relief and report back by October 9, with a separate decision expected next month.
- The American Federation of Government Employees challenged the layoffs, arguing they violate federal law adopted after Hurricane Katrina that prohibits significant reduction of FEMA's authorities and threaten its core disaster-response mission.
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27 Articles
Clinton-Appointed Federal Judge Rules President Trump’s Administration Broke Federal Law in FEMA Workforce Cut – 100PercentFedUp.com – by Jack
A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration violated federal law when the Department of Homeland Security took control of key FEMA staffing decisions and directed the disaster agency to plan for a workforce cut of roughly 50 percent. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston issued the 32-page decision Friday in San Francisco, granting partial summary judgment to a coalition of labor unions, nonprofit organizations, and local governments. Th…
Clinton-Appointed Federal Judge Rules Trump Team Broke the Law by Trying to Cut FEMA’s Bloated Workforce in Half * The Gateway Pundit * by Jim Hᴏft
A Bill Clinton-appointed federal judge in San Francisco ruled late Friday that the Trump administration broke the law when the Department of Homeland Security directed FEMA to slash its workforce roughly in half, a decision that hands another victory to federal unions and another setback to President Trump’s campaign to shrink a disaster agency he has long called wasteful, politicized, and overdue for reform.
Judge Rules Against Trump Administration Over FEMA Staffing Cuts
A U.S. judge declared that the Trump administration violated federal law by instructing FEMA to halve its workforce. FEMA's staffing cut plans, initiated by DHS under Kristi Noem, lacked congressional approval and targeted disaster-response roles. The court's remedy decision is pending, following unions' objections.
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