FEMA staff sound the alarm on disaster preparedness at rally in front of
agency headquarters
[October 18, 2025]
By GABRIELA AOUN ANGUEIRA
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.
Several 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.”
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A sign for the Federal Emergency Management Agency is pictured at
FEMA headquarters, April 20, 2020, in Washington. (Al Drago/The New
York Times via AP, Pool)
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.
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