A federal judge ruled DHS’s plan to cut FEMA staff by 50% was unlawful, and called the number pulled ‘from thin air’

A federal judge found that a Trump administration plan to reduce the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s workforce by half broke the law, The Associated Press reports. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston released her opinion late Friday. Labor organizations that brought the case said the decision went in their favor.

The American Federation of Government Employees and other unions contended that the Department of Homeland Security, then under Secretary Kristi Noem, ignored limits Congress set to protect FEMA’s independence. That staffing fight sat inside a wider lawsuit that the same groups filed against a broader push to shrink the federal workforce.

Illston wrote that senior Homeland Security officials late last year told FEMA leaders to produce a plan that cut staffing by 50 percent, even after the agency’s own supervisors objected. “Frankly, the FEMA staffing plan number appears as if pulled from thin air,” Illston wrote.

Post-Katrina rules kept staffing control with FEMA, the judge wrote

Illston indicated the government ran afoul of rules put in place after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Those rules placed staffing-level decisions with FEMA rather than the Department of Homeland Security and barred DHS from “substantially” reducing FEMA’s “functions,” she wrote.

The judge did not spell out a particular fix. She told both sides to confer and settle on a form of relief.

Terminations took place at FEMA, yet the 50 percent cut was never implemented. After subsequent leadership changes at FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security, the agency brought back some of the workers who had been let go, the report said.

FEMA was among the agencies marked for reductions under a larger Trump administration effort to trim the size of government. The agency has dealt with large numbers of staff leaving, interruptions to grant programs, and slower disaster aid, according to the account.

FEMA said in a statement late Saturday that it does not comment on personnel matters or active litigation, then added, “DHS and FEMA are ready for the 2026 hurricane season.” The Trump Administration has also threatened to cut federal agency support for the Smithsonian over alleged ideological activism. 

The statement continued, “We’re ensuring workforce stability and a strong, deployable force for upcoming national events and potential disasters; making the agency leaner, faster and laser-focused on supporting state, local, tribal and territorial partners before, during and after disasters.” It also said, “FEMA continues to maintain a roster of experienced leadership and support staff across headquarters and regional offices.”

A Trump-appointed FEMA Review Council issued a final report in May that called for major changes in how the agency assists states, tribes, and territories after disasters. That final report dropped the 50 percent workforce cut that had appeared in a December 2025 draft reviewed by The Associated Press. The council instead urged a “strategic review” to set “appropriate staffing levels.”

An August Government Accountability Office report said thousands of staff left in 2025, producing a “loss of institutional knowledge and experienced personnel” that “exacerbated longstanding workforce challenges.” 

More than 4,300 employees, about 17 percent of FEMA’s workforce, left during the 2025 budget year, including more than 1,500 through voluntary reductions. The agency hired about 2,900 people in the same period, the GAO report said.

The GAO advised Congress to “consider requiring” FEMA to ground “significant workforce decisions” in a more strategic planning process. Without that step, the office found, “FEMA cannot be assured that the agency is positioned to effectively meet its mission needs.”