FEMA losing roughly 20% of permanent staff, including longtime leaders, ahead of hurricane season

By Gabe Cohen, CNN

(CNN) — The agency tasked with delivering billions of dollars in assistance to communities devastated by natural disasters is about to lose a huge portion of its workforce, including some of its most experienced and knowledgeable leaders who manage disaster response.

With hurricane season just weeks away, about 20% of FEMA’s permanent full-time staff – roughly 1,000 workers – are expected to take a voluntary buyout as part of the latest staff reduction effort from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, according to several sources briefed on the looming departures.

FEMA leaders responsible for response plans, operations and disaster recovery are among a long list of top brass exiting the agency, multiple sources told CNN.

CNN has reached out to FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security about the departures.

“Whether or not the positions are frozen, it’s likely to be a significant brain drain, which impedes our ability to respond,” a FEMA official, speaking anonymously out of fear of retribution, told CNN.

The 1,000 or so workers have accepted recent DOGE-led offers for deferred resignation or early retirement, sources told CNN, amid mounting tension and turmoil at the disaster relief agency.

More than 800 FEMA personnel accepted similar offers during the initial Deferred Resignation Program earlier this year, The New York Times reported, though many more workers at the agency were eligible for that round.

This time, sources said more senior officials are voluntarily heading for the door.

“All of these people have seen their work destroyed and denigrated,” a senior FEMA official told CNN. “They started seeing that FEMA might actually be killed.”

President Donald Trump and his allies have criticized FEMA for months as partisan, ineffective and unnecessary. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has promised to “eliminate” the agency altogether, potentially in the coming months.

In recent weeks, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, has administered at least a dozen lie detector tests to agency officials over alleged media leaks. Since CNN reported on the polygraphs, several more FEMA officials have been tested, multiple sources said.

“People don’t want to work here anymore,” another senior official said. “And they’re worried about what the agency will look like in a year.”

The departures will reshape FEMA leadership, sources said.

“What you’re losing here are the people that actually know how to build and run programs, and these people aren’t easily replaced,” the first senior official said. “If their desire was to break the ability of the agency to do business, then they are succeeding without question. But they have not done any work building something to replace it.”

More workforce reductions may be coming to FEMA.

The vast majority of FEMA personnel are part of the Cadre of On-Call Response Employees (known as CORE) and the Reservists. Those positions – which are not part of the new batch of departures because they were largely ineligible for the latest voluntary resignation offers – include most of the public-facing roles that help deliver assistance to communities after disasters.

Last month, Secretary Noem issued a directive requiring CORE and Reservists, many of whom hold 2- to 4-year term positions, to be individually approved by Noem’s team to be renewed for another term. Right now, many are only receiving extensions in 30-day increments, multiple sources said.

Several senior FEMA officials told CNN they expect DHS to chisel away at those positions in the coming months to reduce the agency’s staff even further, which would inevitably squeeze resources deployed to disaster zones.

“Honestly, I don’t know what to expect,” the official who works directly on disaster response said. “We’re scrambling to make plans to fill the gaps. I think we just accept that there are going to be more hits coming.”

Hurricane preparations have already been stifled amid funding restrictions at the agency, sources said. Some trainings are postponed, hiring is frozen, teams are preparing for staffing cuts, and engagements between FEMA and its state partners have been limited.

“There is a horrible level of fear and anxiety,” a fourth FEMA official told CNN. “The lack of a bigger picture plan is what is causing the most worry. If we had a clear ‘march in this direction,’ that would be fine, and we would do it. Instead, it’s all a guessing game and trying to be ready.”

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