FEMA staff sound the alarm on disaster preparedness at rally in front of agency headquarters

Current and former staff of the Federal Emergency Management Agency demonstrated against workforce and program cuts during a “FEMA Solidarity Rally” on Friday, a potentially risky act of protest because some of the same staffers were placed on leave after signing a public dissent letter in August.

A few dozen people gathered outside the FEMA headquarters in Washington, D.C., calling on President Donald Trump to stop dismantling the agency charged with managing the federal disaster response. They warned that eliminating FEMA, something the president suggested he would consider, would put lives at risk and hurt communities.

“It’s clear these disasters are becoming more frequent and more intense,” Jeremy Edwards, the agency’s deputy director of public affairs under President Joe Biden, said at the rally. “Our country needs FEMA now more than ever. And right now, FEMA needs us, too.”

The demonstration also was a call to support FEMA staff members who have been on paid administrative leave for nearly two months after signing a public letter of dissent in August. That letter criticized Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other Trump officials for cutting staff and programs.

“Try as they might to run us over, we are not backing down, and we are putting up one hell of a fight,” said Phoenix Gibson, one of the few current FEMA employees who publicly signed the dissent letter.

FEMA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the rally.

Demonstrators waved signs that said “FEMA Saves Lives” and “Hands off FEMA” while speakers paid tribute to FEMA’s staff and mission, which they said has been under attack by the Trump administration.

FEMA veterans recalled proud moments when they helped deploy search and rescue teams after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, or helped nail tarps to people’s roofs after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Michael Coen, FEMA chief of staff in the Obama and Biden administrations, said the employees’ commitment to helping people compelled them “to warn Congress and the American people of the cascading effects of the decisions being made by the current administration.”

Organizers said they want Noem to reinstate signers of the August declaration, for acting administrator David Richardson to resign and for FEMA staff to no longer be required to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of eliminating or phasing out FEMA, though that rhetoric has shifted in recent months. Noem often says FEMA should be eliminated “as it exists today” and remade into something new.

The agency has been in upheaval since January. About 18% of the agency’s permanent full-time employees have departed, including 24 senior-level staffers, according to the Government Accountability Office.

The administration also has slashed resilience and preparedness funding. A requirement that Noem personally approve any spending over $100,000 has drawn sharp criticism and was even blamed for delays in deploying search-and-rescue teams after the deadly Texas floods in July.

Trump appointed a 12-person FEMA review council led by Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. It is expected to submit its recommendations around December.

Any major changes to FEMA’s authority would require action by Congress. Lawmakers in the House introduced the bipartisan “FEMA Act” this summer, which calls for returning FEMA to a Cabinet-level agency, deploying project-based grants instead of reimbursements, and creating a single application for all federal disaster help for survivors, among other reforms.

Rally organizers said they supported the bill.