WASHINGTON, D.C. (Federal News Network) — Employees at the Federal Emergency Management Agency who signed a public dissent letter say the Department of Homeland Security violated whistleblower laws when placing them on administrative leave last week.
In a Sept. 2 letter, lawyers representing FEMA staff argue DHS’s actions amount to “illegal retaliatory personnel actions”. The letter is addressed to congressional committees, the Office of Special Counsel and the DHS Office of the Inspector General.
“We ask you to open an investigation, if not already done, and, once completed, find that DHS has illegally retaliated against the FEMA whistleblowers and order immediate corrective action,” the letter states. “That action should include, but is not limited to, full reinstatement.”
More than 190 current and former FEMA employees signed the dissent letter, called the “Katrina Declaration,” in late August. It warns that changes at FEMA under the Trump administration, including personnel cuts, risk leaving the agency unprepared to deal with a major disaster.
While many employees signed anonymously, about three dozen current FEMA staff members signed the declaration with their names. FEMA placed those employees on administrative leave last week.
Abby McIlraith, an emergency management specialist at FEMA, was among those who publicly signed the letter and was then placed on administrative leave. She said those who were placed on leave want to get back to work as soon as possible, especially amid Atlantic hurricane season.
“We hope that they’ll respond, ideally be reinstating us immediately,” McIlraith told Federal News work. “But if they don’t, we’re prepared to keep fighting to return to work as soon as possible.”
DHS has come out strongly against the letter. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, in a statement released late last month, said the signers are “the same bureaucrats who presided over decades of inefficiency are now objecting to reform.”
McIlraith, who has been with FEMA less than a year, said she and her colleagues want to improve outcomes for disaster survivors.
“I personally was three years old when Hurricane Katrina made landfall, so it’s not like I’ve been presiding over decades of government inefficiency,” she said.
The whistleblower complaint, released by the Government Accountability Project, argues that the FEMA dissent letter contains “multiple protected disclosures.” Placing the employees on administrative leave, the letter argues, violated whistleblower retaliation laws.
Michael Fallings, managing partner at the law firm Tully Rinckey, said federal employees have the right to make protected disclosures, but agencies can argue that such disclosures are mere disagreements over policy.
“It’s not necessarily enough to say that FEMA was violating the law, but it is important to note that the employee just has to have a reasonable belief that the agency was violating the law,” Fallings said. “But that does take an analysis of the law being pointed to and the actions taken by the agency.”
The Office of Special Counsel can review such claims to determine whether there’s enough evidence to show that a prohibited personnel practice, such as whistleblower retaliation, occurred. OSC can then choose to move forward by mediating the case or even filing a legal request for a stay before the Merit System Protections Board.
“The Office Special Counsel does have many, many complaints that it has received since the new administration, so the speed in which they conduct investigation has been slower, but given that this has received national news, that’s probably something they’ll focus on trying to complete,” Fallings said.
Employees can also go directly to the MSPB with whistleblower complaints if OSC decides not to pick up the case or takes more than 120 days to make a decision.
