FEMA reinstates whistleblowers as Trump administration reverses Noem’s policies

By Gabe Cohen, CNN

(CNN) — FEMA has reinstated a group of whistleblowers who signed an open letter to Congress last August warning that the Trump administration’s dismantling of the federal agency was setting the stage for a disaster-response breakdown on the scale of Hurricane Katrina, according to five FEMA officials with knowledge of the matter.

Officials at the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which it oversees, also brought back multiple senior officials who were polygraphed and placed on paid administrative leave more than a year ago, three of the officials told CNN.

The reversals are part of a broader reset unfolding just weeks into Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s tenure at DHS, partly in an effort to stabilize the agency ahead of hurricane season. He has been rolling back some of the most contentious changes made under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was fired by President Donald Trump last month.

Trump floated eliminating FEMA early in his term, and Noem embraced the idea — vowing to dismantle the agency and shift more responsibility for disaster response to the states.

Noem’s heavy-handed overhaul – which gutted the senior leadership, drove out more than 20% of the workforce, and sent morale into a sleep slide – left many inside FEMA warning the agency was increasingly unprepared for a major, multi-state disaster. Her rhetoric softened in the months before her ouster when it became clear many Republicans — including GOP lawmakers — did not support abolishing FEMA.

But in a striking pivot, Mullin, as Trump’s new pick to run the department, has begun unwinding staffing cuts and easing strict spending approval processes that slowed disaster operations. During a trip to North Carolina this month, Mullin praised FEMA and said he would get aid out more quickly and cut red tape that can bog down recovery.

In another remarkable twist, Trump is expected to nominate Cameron Hamilton to serve as FEMA administrator less than a year after he was abruptly fired from that role — which he held in an acting capacity — after breaking from the administration’s script and telling Congress he did not support eliminating the agency.

“As we approach the 2026 hurricane season and the FIFA World Cup, FEMA is taking targeted steps to stabilize our workforce and strengthen readiness,” a FEMA spokesperson told CNN in a statement. “Under new leadership, FEMA is addressing outstanding personnel actions to ensure workforce stability and a strong, deployable surge force for upcoming national events and potential disasters.”

Whistleblower staffers reinstated

More than 180 current and former FEMA staffers signed the open letter to Congress last August, warning of the growing turmoil inside the agency, though most did so anonymously. Fourteen current FEMA staffers put their names on the document, and Noem’s team promptly placed them on administrative leave and opened an investigation into their conduct.

In December, CNN learned FEMA had cleared the workers to return — but after CNN asked about it, DHS reversed course and put them back on leave.

“Once alerted, the unauthorized reinstatement was swiftly corrected by senior leadership,” a DHS spokesperson wrote at the time. “This Administration will not tolerate rogue conduct, unauthorized actions, or entrenched bureaucrats resisting change.”

Democratic lawmakers and whistleblower rights attorneys argued the employees were being illegally targeted. During Mullin’s confirmation hearing, Sen. Andy Kim, a Democrat from New Jersey, pressed Mullin to reinstate the workers, calling Noem’s actions “unlawful.”

“There are already laws in place to protect whistleblowers, and I’ve said multiple times, I’ll work within the law and the requirements of me as Secretary,” Mullin responded.

The 14 staffers were directed to return to work on Thursday.

“The past eight months have not been easy, and being able to come back to this work means a great deal to me,” Virginia Case, a reinstated external affairs officer, told CNN. “Moving forward, I hope our agency will address the concerns we raised in the Katrina Declaration. My focus now is getting back to work and doing everything I can to support communities impacted by disaster.”

At least two senior officials who were swept up in Noem’s hunt for leakers are also back on the job. They were polygraphed last spring, then abruptly put on administrative leave without explanation, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter. This week, after more than a year on the sidelines collecting a paycheck, they were told to report back to work.

“There’s your tax dollars at work,” a senior FEMA official told CNN in response to the reinstatements.

This week, FEMA also reinstated a staffer who was put on leave in September for a social media post criticizing Charlie Kirk after his murder.

Staffing cuts and spending rules

In addition, FEMA is reversing staffing cuts first reported by CNN in January, when DHS began terminating disaster workers as their contracts expired, the agency confirmed.

Roughly 200 workers were pushed out before a major winter storm prompted Noem’s team to pause the cuts and start extending workers for 90 days. Some of the cut staff will now have a chance to get their jobs back, three sources said. And going forward, most expiring contracts will be extended for one year — a stopgap move as FEMA braces for hurricane season with staffing already stretched thin.

After a yearlong hiring freeze, DHS is planning to greenlight FEMA to fill another 400 vacant disaster-worker jobs, two sources told CNN – a fraction of the thousands of staffers who left over that time.

“Don’t oversell it,” another senior official said. “It’s simply not possible to hire that many that quickly given the losses to our human capital staffing. And hurricane season is 30 days away.”

Thousands of temporary disaster responders who deploy during catastrophic storms were also offered extensions with their contracts set to expire in the coming weeks.

Mullin has already eliminated one of the most consequential Noem-era policies: a spending rule requiring her personal approval for any expenditure over $100,000. Noem said it was meant to root out waste, fraud and abuse. But it created a major bottleneck and a massive backlog — billions of dollars in contracts, grants and disaster-related spending that stalled inside FEMA.

The policy also triggered blowback from Republicans. North Carolina Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, at one point, blocked DHS nominees, accusing Noem of withholding aid needed for communities hit by Hurricane Helene in 2024.

In his confirmation hearing, Mullin told lawmakers he planned to scrap the $100,000 rule, calling it “micromanagement.” On his first trip as DHS secretary, he went to North Carolina, where Sen. Budd joined him for a roundtable and praised the rollback — saying it was already helping get money flowing to the state faster.

Concerns remain heading into a high-risk season

The rollbacks are unfolding as FEMA insiders remain deeply concerned about the agency’s response capabilities with a demanding stretch ahead: hurricane season, widespread drought conditions that could worsen wildfire risk, and preparations tied to the World Cup — planning that was slowed by delayed funding during Noem’s tenure, even as officials raised national security concerns.

FEMA still isn’t allowing travel for hurricane readiness training and exercises, according to two senior officials. While DHS leaders have cited the recent shutdown, that work is typically funded through the unaffected Disaster Relief Fund.

Senior officials warn FEMA is not the same agency it was at the start of Trump’s second term. The leadership exodus and staffing losses could take years to rebuild. Noem-era policies also disrupted training and strained communication with state and local partners.

“It’s all new people in new positions that haven’t been properly exercised, so everyone is going to be just figuring things out mid-disaster when efficiency and effectiveness are critical,” another high-ranking official said. “We are completely screwed if there is a bad disaster.”

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