A federal judge in San Francisco ruled that the Trump administration acted unlawfully when it moved to cut the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s workforce in half. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston issued the decision late Friday.
Illston found that the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, exceeded its authority by taking control of the agency’s personnel decisions and steering it to cut thousands of disaster-response jobs. A federal law adopted after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 bars the department from substantially reducing FEMA’s authorities, responsibilities or functions.
The case centres on thousands of temporary FEMA reservists who are called on after hurricanes, wildfires, floods and other disasters. Labor unions representing federal workers sued after the administration moved to stop renewing many of those contracts.
“There is no evidence in the record reflecting reasoned decision-making for this about-face or for the subsequent conditions DHS placed on FEMA’s renewal authority,” Illston wrote.
The judge, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, noted that FEMA projected staffing of 11,383 employees for the coming fiscal year, roughly half its previous level, without a clear basis for the figure. She had declined in June to immediately block the cuts, finding FEMA had temporarily backed away from its plans, but said Friday the agency appeared to be moving ahead.
The unions argued the cuts would undermine FEMA’s core disaster-response mission, were not approved by Congress, and were ordered by former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem rather than initiated within FEMA. The administration has argued that FEMA has flexibility to set its own staffing levels. President Donald Trump has previously suggested that FEMA should be abolished and that states should handle their own emergency preparedness.
In a separate decision, Illston faulted FEMA and DHS officials for using the Signal messaging app on personal phones to discuss staffing cuts and then deleting the messages. She said she would presume the lost messages would have been unfavorable to the defendants. The dispute is part of a broader push by the administration to reduce the federal workforce, echoing other court fights such as one in which a court blocked an order to keep a Michigan coal plant running.
Friday’s ruling did not include remedies or penalties. Illston said those issues would be addressed in a separate ruling next month, and invited the parties to submit briefings on the scope of relief.