A US judge has ruled that the Trump administration broke the law by ordering the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to cut its workforce in half.
US District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco in a decision, issued late Friday, said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security acted unlawfully by usurping FEMA’s authority over its own personnel and steering the agency to cut thousands of disaster-response jobs.
While FEMA is part of DHS, a federal law adopted after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 says the department “may not substantially or significantly reduce [FEMA’s] authorities, responsibilities, or functions.”
Agreeing with unions that sued, Illston said the department violated the law when it moved last year to stop FEMA from renewing the temporary contracts of thousands of on-call reservists who respond to disasters.
“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.
Friday’s ruling did not include remedies or penalties. Illston, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, wrote those would be addressed in a separate ruling next month and said the parties may submit briefings on the scope of relief she should provide to the unions.
