FEMA Tells Staff to Name Whistleblowers or Risk Losing Jobs
This article features Government Accountability Project Senior Counsel David Seide and was originally published here.
Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel who signed an open letter criticizing President Donald Trump’s cuts to disaster funding have been interrogated in recent weeks in an effort to determine the names of colleagues who endorsed the letter anonymously or distributed it, according to people familiar with the investigation and documents reviewed by Bloomberg News.
The interviews with FEMA workers have been carried out by the agency’s division that investigates employee misconduct, and those interviewed have been told they risk being fired for failure to cooperate. The employees have been instructed not to bring counsel, according to people familiar with the process.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, declined to comment “on ongoing investigations.” A FEMA spokesperson said the agency does not comment on personnel issues.
Nearly 200 current and former staffers co-signed the Aug. 25 whistleblower letter, which included a petition to Congress seeking workforce protections against “politically motivated firings.” Of the 192 signatories, 154 chose to remain anonymous.
Employees who publicly signed their names were immediately placed on leave. FEMA told employees at the time that it didn’t place signatories on leave as a retaliatory measure. Weeks later, officials from FEMA’s Office of Professional Responsibility began lining up interviews with some of the known letter signers, a move CNN first reported. The interviews began in late September.
Those interviewed were sent a warning letter advising them that the information they shared would not be used in criminal proceedings “except to prosecute you for knowingly making false statements,” according to the notice seen by Bloomberg News. Moreover, the workers were told to sign a non-disclosure notice memorandum, also seen by Bloomberg News, which forbade them from disclosing the investigation’s existence.
The probe is unfolding as FEMA faces the final months of hurricane season, which could still whip up storms capable of striking the United States. The investigation also comes as the Environmental Protection Agency fires staffers who signed an open letter critical of Trump leadership. At least 15 EPA staffers have been let go, including nine last week, according to Justin Chen, president of the federal union American Federation of Government Employees Council 238.
The Whistleblower Protection Act gives federal employees the legal right to voice opinions on matters of public concern, including potential dangers to public health and safety, without adverse impacts on their jobs.
Employees at FEMA and EPA have filed complaints to the Office of Special Counsel alleging that agency officials have engaged in retaliatory action in violation of federal whistleblower law. David Seide, senior counsel for the nonprofit law firm Government Accountability Project, which is representing several whistleblowers, said employees who should be protected under whistleblower law have been locked out of computer systems and barred from contacting colleagues.
FEMA workers haven’t been permitted to bring legal counsel or union representatives to their interviews with investigators, said Colette Delawalla, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Stand Up for Science, which helped publish the EPA and FEMA letters. “They are not really given an option not to comply,” she said. “They don’t have guidance while they’re in there.”
Trump raised the possibility of eliminating FEMA a week into his second term. He then established a review council to weigh in on the agency’s future, with the group set to deliver recommendations in the coming weeks. The administration has shrunk the agency’s footprint in the meantime, providing less federal aid to help disaster-hit communities and canceling a more than $4 billion grant program for disaster preparedness, which triggered a court challenge.
In the first six months of the year, FEMA lost more than 2,400 staff — about 10% of its workforce — due to firings, resignations, retirements and early-exit programs, according to the Government Accountability Office.
