FEMA reinstates workers put on leave for criticizing the White House

This article features Government Accountability Project senior counsel David Seide and was originally published here.

FEMA reinstated 14 employees who were placed on leave this summer after signing a petition protesting the White House’s disaster response efforts.

Why it matters: It’s a potentially significant development for other federal workers, who’ve been put on leave by the White House after speaking out against the administration.

  • 14 employees had been put on leave, and one was subsequently fired from their jobs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
  • They received notices of their reinstatement last week, the New York Times reported.

Catch up quick: The petition, dubbed the Katrina Declaration and sent to Congress in August, had warned that cuts to the agency were putting people and property at risk, and were a departure from improvements in disaster response put in place after the botched response to the devastating 2005 Hurricane in New Orleans.

  • Just one day after it was made public, the Department of Homeland Security put signers who had used their full names on indefinite leave — one employee was fired.
  • The signers then filed complaints with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency that investigates whistleblower complaints.

Zoom in: The government made a mistake by retaliating against employees who did nothing more than sign their names on a petition, said David Seide, senior counsel at the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit group that helped workers file their complaints.

  • While the decision isn’t binding on other federal agencies, Seide said they’ll use this new development to argue for other government workers. “I’d expect them to treat it as meaningful precedent.”
  • 144 employees at the EPA were put on leave in June, and seven were fired, after putting out a similar letter. Last month, the NIH placed Jenna Norton on leave. Norton signed a similar petition, deemed the “Bethesda Declaration.”

The other side: FEMA and the White House didn’t respond immediately to Axios’ request for comment.

The big picture: It’s far more difficult to fire federal workers than those in the private sector — though the Trump administration has been pushing to change that.

  • Hundreds of thousands of federal employees have been terminated or pushed out of work by the administration this year.
  • Though a few efforts — like conducting layoffs during the shutdown — have been thwarted.

Zoom out: President Trump has floated “getting rid of” FEMA in the past, and putting the responsibility for disaster relief more squarely in the hands of the states.

  • But the White House backed away from that stance after devastating floods in Texas last summer.