FEMA Orders Staff Back After Whistleblower Letter Probe Ends

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has ordered a group of employees to return to work after placing them on leave in August — and later dismissing one — for publicly raising concerns about the agency’s disaster-response capabilities.

About 14 workers who signed a whistleblower letter criticizing President Donald Trump’s cuts to disaster funding had been placed on paid administrative leave, according to David Seide, a lawyer for the nonprofit Government Accountability Project, which is helping some workers press whistleblower complaints against FEMA with the federal Office of Special Counsel. FEMA opened an internal investigation into the signatories, Seide said, and began notifying employees last week to return to work, indicating the investigations had ended.