After Hurricane Katrina, Congress passed a law that bars the Department of Homeland Security from significantly reducing what FEMA does. Starting last year, the Trump administration moved to cut the agency's staff roughly in half anyway.
On Friday, a federal judge ruled that it broke the law doing it.
What the administration did
FEMA's biggest workforce isn't in Washington. About 40% of its staff are members of the Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery, known as CORE. They are the people dispatched across the country after a disaster, and who stay in those communities for years afterward.
CORE workers are hired on temporary terms that FEMA has long renewed on its own. Last year the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, took that power away. It counted renewing an existing disaster worker as a "new hire" under Trump's hiring freeze, even though DHS itself was exempt from the freeze.
FEMA's staffing plan projected a staff of 11,383 for fiscal year 2026, roughly half its prior level, with no documented reason for that number.
What the judge found
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco ruled in a lawsuit brought by the American Federation of Government Employees and other unions.
She found DHS acted "arbitrarily" and "capriciously." In her words:
"There is no evidence in the record reflecting reasoned decisionmaking for this about-face or for the subsequent conditions DHS placed on FEMA's renewal authority."
She also found the cuts did real damage: "The record also reflects that revoking FEMA's CORE renewal authority impeded FEMA's ability to perform its functions."
That matters because of the law passed after Katrina. It says DHS "may not substantially or significantly reduce the authorities, responsibilities, or functions" of FEMA. Judge Illston ruled that blocking FEMA from keeping its disaster teams did exactly that.
The deleted messages
The evidence appeared to show the cuts were led by former DHS leaders Joseph Guy and Kara Voorhies, as well as Karen Evans. The judge found they used the auto-delete feature on the messaging app Signal to discuss the staff reductions.
Because those messages are gone, Judge Illston said she will presume they "would have been unfavorable to Defendants." In plain terms: when you destroy the evidence, the court assumes it would have hurt you.
Evans has since returned to the department to lead a fraud task force.
Why this is bigger than one agency
FEMA is who shows up when a disaster wipes out a town. The on-call teams DHS blocked are the people who stay long after the TV cameras leave, helping families get aid and helping local governments rebuild. Workers told the Washington Sun that gutting that office would compromise recovery after a disaster.
This fits a pattern we've documented. Michael Whatley, whom Trump made the "recovery czar" for Hurricane Helene, said on tape he told Trump to get rid of FEMA. And Gus Bilirakis voted against $20 billion for FEMA the day before Helene hit his district.
The judge's ruling didn't set a remedy yet. She'll decide what the administration has to do to fix it in a separate ruling next month. DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The bottom line
A federal judge ruled that Trump's Department of Homeland Security acted arbitrarily and broke a post-Katrina law when it blocked FEMA from renewing its on-call disaster teams, about 40% of the agency's staff, as FEMA projected cutting its workforce to 11,383, roughly half. Officials involved discussed the cuts on auto-deleting Signal messages, and the judge will presume those deleted messages would have hurt the government's case.
Source
Federal Judge Says DHS Acted 'Capriciously' When Halving FEMA's Staff — The Washington Sun, September 2026. Also: US judge rules that Trump plan to halve FEMA workforce violated law — Reuters via GV Wire, September 12, 2026. Photo: Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call via AP Images.
