[UPDATE] A federal judge struck down the Trump plan to cut FEMA's workforce by 50%.
Judge Susan Illston ruled Homeland Security overstepped its legal bounds during hurricane season.
A federal judge ruled Friday, Sept. 11, that the Trump administration's plan to cut FEMA's workforce by 50% violated the law. States and unions sued to stop the plan. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston found that the Department of Homeland Security had usurped FEMA's own authority in writing the plan, and that the 50% figure appeared to have been "pulled from thin air." She ruled the cut would leave the agency unable to meet disaster-response duties set by law, during hurricane season.
PREVIOUSLY
The administration ordered the 50% FEMA workforce reduction as part of its government-wide cuts this year. States and unions sued, arguing the Department of Homeland Security had taken over authority Congress gave to FEMA itself — the argument Judge Illston accepted.
The law and the judge:
- The 2006 reform act made the FEMA head the top federal adviser on emergency response.
- President Bill Clinton appointed Judge Susan Illston to the Northern California federal bench in 1995.