Litigation

Unions, nonprofits challenge FEMA staffing cuts in court

The new suit alleges the staffing cuts violate laws that restrict DHS's authority to make sweeping overhauls and staff reductions at FEMA.

Justin Doubleday@jdoubledayWFED

January 28, 2026 4:51 pm

3 min read

A coalition of unions and nonprofits is challenging cuts to staff at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, alleging they violate laws that restrict the Department of Homeland Security’s ability to make sweeping changes at FEMA.

Their court challenge filed Tuesday evening alleges DHS and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are breaking the law by directing the termination of hundreds of FEMA employees.

The complaint alleges those actions violate the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006, which gave FEMA more autonomy and restricts the DHS secretary’s ability to make sweeping overhauls and staff reductions at the emergency management agency.

FEMA earlier this month began shedding staff by not renewing the contracts of hundreds of Cadre of On-Call Emergency Response, Recovery Employees (CORE). Multiple sources have indicated that DHS headquarters and Noem herself are now in charge of approving CORE renewals.

FEMA reportedly paused those non-renewals temporarily last week in response to Winter Storm Fern.

A draft workforce planning exercise issued by FEMA headquarters to supervisors in December included “target” reductions for fiscal 2026 that would cut up to 50% of the agency’s 23,000 employees, including 40% of the CORE workforce.

The plaintiffs in the court challenge include the American Federation of Government Employees and other unions. They are being represented by multiple law firms and advocacy organizations, including Democracy Forward.

“Gutting the staff responsible for disaster preparedness and response does not make the country safer; it leaves families, local governments, and first responders without the support they rely on when emergencies strike,” Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a statement. “The law does not permit the executive branch to dismantle FEMA in this way, and this lawsuit seeks to ensure the agency can do the job Congress created it to do.”

The complaint is attached to a broader lawsuit filed last April by AFGE and other groups challenging the Trump administration’s governmentwide reorganization and downsizing initiatives.

AFGE has also been calling on Noem to resign in the wake of her comments about the shooting death of Veterans Affairs nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis over the weekend. Noem called Pretti a “domestic terrorist” in the hours after the shooting and said he was “brandishing his gun,” despite video evidence to the contrary.

“The unlawful actions described in our lawsuit underscore Secretary Noem’s disregard for human life and further support AFGE’s call for her resignation,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement. “AFGE is proud to stand up for our members at FEMA and for the American public’s right to a government that is ready and able to respond when disaster strikes.”

Some lawmakers have also pushed back against the CORE cuts.

Earlier this month, a group of Senate Democrats wrote Noem, urging her to halt the non-renewals and to share a FEMA staffing plan. A group of House Democrats, on the other hand, called on Trump to fire Noem over the CORE cuts, arguing they “illegally subvert” the Post-Katrina law’s guardrails.

That law was also invoked by a group of current and former FEMA staff in a public letter they called the “Katrina Declaration.” The letter, published in August, argued that under Noem, “FEMA is enacting processes and leadership structures that echo the conditions PKEMRA was designed to prevent.”

Meanwhile, a bipartisan bill in the House would remove FEMA from under DHS and make it an independent agency, while introducing substantial reforms to how disaster management works. The legislation, called the Fixing Emergency Management for Americans (FEMA) Act, passed the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last year. It has been gaining co-sponsors while awaiting further action.