WASHINGTON — Fourteen employees with the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency returned to work after spending eight months on administrative leave for signing a public letter criticizing the Trump administration. The letter, known as the Katrina declaration, was sent last August to members of Congress and a federal council formed to help determine FEMA's future.

More than 190 current and former FEMA employees signed the declaration, of whom 36 signed their names. Employees who signed and were still actively employed at the agency were placed on indefinite paid administrative leave one day after the letter was sent. The group was briefly reinstated in December before being returned to leave, which a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson blamed on "bureaucrats acting outside of their authority."

Abby McIlraith, a FEMA emergency management specialist, received emails on Wednesday instructing her to return to work. By Thursday she was back at the FEMA office in Maryland waiting to regain access to her work devices.

"I feel pretty vindicated," McIlraith said. "We did the right thing."

The letter criticized the DHS decision to reassign some FEMA employees to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the failure to appoint a qualified FEMA administrator as stipulated by law, and cuts to mitigation programs, preparedness training and the FEMA workforce. It also called for FEMA to be taken out from under DHS and restored to a cabinet-level agency.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in national preparedness funding was cut in 2025, and FEMA lost roughly a third of its full-time staff to firings, retirements and resignations. President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for states to take on more responsibility with disaster response and preparedness, though most states are not equipped to assume those increased responsibilities. Trump's budget proposal for next year would slash grant programs relied on to increase preparedness at the state and local level by $1.3 billion if adopted.

Since being sworn in last month, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin reversed a policy requiring his office to approve any DHS expenditure over $100,000 and released more than $1 billion in backlogged FEMA grants and reimbursements to states, tribes and territories. In his Senate confirmation hearing, he called whistleblower retaliation unlawful.

The FEMA Review Council is expected to propose changes to the agency in its recommendation report next week. Bill Turner, emergency management director at the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection and resilience committee chair for the National Emergency Management Association, said it could take years to make key changes.

It took administration officials more than 72 hours to authorize deployment of federal search-and-rescue teams after the Guadalupe river in Texas surged into a summer camp and nearby communities in July, a flood that left more than 135 people dead. The agency's response capacity has also been tested by Hurricane Helene, which struck the U.S. south-east in 2024.

"Until FEMA capabilities are restored and disaster survivors are served I'm going to continue speaking out," McIlraith said.