Trump critics inside FEMA put on indefinite leave after blasting cuts in dissent letter

Some employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency who signed a public letter of dissent earlier this week were put on administrative leave Tuesday evening, according to documents reviewed

More than 180 current and former FEMA employees signed the letter sent to the FEMA Review Council and Congress on Monday critiquing recent cuts to agency

Thirty-five signed their names while 141 signed anonymously for fear of retribution.

The

The notice said the decision “is not a disciplinary action and is not intended to be punitive.”

FEMA did not respond immediately to questions about how many

The Washington Post first reported that some FEMA employees were being put on leave.

The dissent letter contained six “statements of opposition” to current policies at FEMA, including an expenditure approval policy

It also critiqued the DHS decision to reassign some FEMA employees to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the failure to appoint a qualified FEMA administrator as stipulated

In an email Monday, FEMA spokesperson Daniel Llargues said that the Trump administration “has made accountability and reform a priority so that taxpayer dollars actually reach the people and communities they are meant to help.”

“It is not surprising that some of the same bureaucrats who presided over decades of inefficiency are now objecting to reform,” Llargues said. “Change is always hard.”

Employees at other agencies including the National Institutes of Health and Environmental Protection Agency have issued similar statements. About 140 EPA