An attorney representing the Trump administration informed a U.S.
District Court Friday evening that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has begun offering new appointments to disaster workers whose contracts the agency did not renew in January, reversing a controversial decision that prompted a coalition of labor unions, scientific groups and local governments to sue the administration.
FEMA has “initiated contact to offer new appointments” to term-limited staff whose contracts expired the first three weeks of January, U.S.
Attorney Craig H.
Missakian wrote in a notice submitted to the U.S.
District Court in San Francisco Friday.
The notice comes after months of uncertainty over the future of FEMA’s term-limited disaster workers, who make up roughly half the agency’s workforce.
It follows news earlier this week that FEMA had reinstated 14 employees who were put on paid administrative leave for eight months for signing a public letter of dissent critiquing policies taken by FEMA and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security.
The actions are the latest indications that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is moving away from his predecessor Kristi Noem’s harsher approach toward FEMA, before she was fired as DHS leader.
They also raise questions about whether the measures are a response to concerns that the disaster agency might not be prepared for the Atlantic hurricane season and major events like the FIFA World Cup.
FEMA did not immediately respond to questions Friday about the court notice or how many employees received offers to return.
On Thursday a spokesperson told The Associated Press that while it does not comment on specific personnel actions, the agency is “addressing outstanding personnel actions to ensure workforce stability and a strong, deployable surge force for upcoming national events and potential disasters.” FEMA’s Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employees, or CORE, work on two- to four-year assignments, though....
