A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration broke the law when it ordered a 50 percent cut in Federal Emergency Management Agency employees, including thousands of on-call workers who respond to disasters.
The decision delivered a win for the union representing FEMA workers, which had argued in a lawsuit that slashing the workforce so dramatically would violate the agency’s independence and hamper its ability to fulfill its legal obligations to respond to natural disasters such as hurricanes and wildfires.
“Frankly, the FEMA staffing plan number appears as if pulled from thin air,” U.S. District Judge Susan Illston of the Northern District of California wrote in a ruling issued Friday.
The judge said that Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, usurped the disaster agency’s authority with an “arbitrary and capricious” plan to cut staff. The proposal was outlined in documents and emails shared among officials in December.
Illston also said DHS, which was then led by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, overstepped in its move to revoke FEMA’s authority to renew appointments of its Cadre of On-Call Response and Recovery (CORE) team, the disaster agency’s largest workforce.
Members of the CORE team, who are among the first responders on the ground after a disaster, work under two- to four-year contracts that are often renewed. They frequently continue their work for years when it’s needed to help communities recover.
The judge found that DHS violated the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act, which states that the Homeland Security secretary “may not substantially or significantly reduce the authorities, responsibilities, or functions of the Agency.”
Noem had long wanted to cut back on CORE staffing, former senior officials told The Post when plans were revealed in January. The plans for additional cuts came after a wave of FEMA terminations in 2025.
Documents obtained by The Washington Post in January detailed the plans for potential massive reductions, which would have cut 41 percent — at least 4,300 roles — of the CORE team. Correspondence between senior agency leadership also showed plans to cut surge staffing by 85 percent, or nearly 6,500 roles.
The court ordered the parties to meet “and confer as to the scope of relief” in light of the ruling in favor of the FEMA workers. If they can’t reach agreement by Oct. 9, the judge’s order requires the plaintiffs and defendants to file a joint statement laying out what remains in dispute.
Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, which represented the plaintiffs in the case, welcomed the judge’s ruling.
“Congress created FEMA to operate with independence, given its mission to prepare and respond quickly when disasters arise,” Perryman said.
MaryAnn Tierney, a former acting deputy FEMA administrator who held high-ranking positions within the agency for 15 years before leaving in 2025, told The Washington Post she believes FEMA needs reforms to enable it to better serve survivors of disasters.
But, she added, that “cannot mean hollowing out the very workforce required to do the job.”
“The American people deserve a FEMA that works better and a FEMA with the capacity to be there when disaster strikes,” Tierney said. “Those goals are not in conflict, they are inseparable.”
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