FILE PHOTO: David Richardson, the U.S. acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, testifies before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing on improving disaster response, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 23, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

(Corrects first paragraph to say "nearly three dozen current and former staff" instead of "nearly three dozen staff")

By Tim Reid

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Nearly three dozen current and former staff at the U.S. agency that responds to natural disasters warned Congress in a letter on Monday that the inexperience of the Trump administration's top appointees could lead to a catastrophe on the level of Hurricane Katrina.

The letter from the Federal Emergency Management Agency workers was a rare airing of internal dissent at FEMA. It said the agency's current leaders, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and acting FEMA director David Richardson, lacked the qualifications to manage natural disasters and were eroding its ability to respond to hurricanes and other emergencies.

Noem's requirement that she review all contracts and grants over $100,000 "reduces FEMA's authorities and capabilities to swiftly deliver our mission," the letter states.

It asks Congress to make FEMA an independent cabinet-level agency free from interference from DHS and to protect FEMA employees from politically motivated firings "to prevent not only another national catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina, but the effective dissolution of FEMA itself."

Daniel Llargues, the acting FEMA press secretary, said FEMA is "committed to ensuring FEMA delivers for the American people." He said FEMA has been bogged down by red tape and inefficiencies and the Trump administration "has made accountability and reform a priority."

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the criticisms of Noem.

Roughly 2,000 FEMA employees, or a third of its workforce, have left the agency this year through firings, buyouts or early retirements. The Trump administration also plans to cut about $1 billion in grant funding, affecting its emergency management programs.

The protest letter was sent days before the 20th anniversary of Katrina, which caused catastrophic flooding in New Orleans and devastating destruction along the Gulf Coast in August 2005, claiming the lives of more than 1,800 people.

It was also delivered two months into the U.S. hurricane season and at a time when President Donald Trump has said he wants to drastically cut the size and mandate of FEMA, leaving much more of the burden of responding to natural disasters to individual states.

Katrina was one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, in part because of a breakdown of leadership and response at the city, state and federal level. Congress passed the Post-Katrina Emergency Reform Act in 2006 to give FEMA more responsibility and to put in place safeguards to mitigate against another failed response.

The letter warns that the Trump administration is undoing those reforms and sending FEMA back to pre-Katrina levels by cutting funding, reducing disaster recovery and training programs, and by hampering its ability to act quickly because of stringent new oversight policies.

The letter urges the Republican-controlled Congress to defend FEMA from cuts in funding and staff, and that it be led by an administrator with the qualifications and experience to manage disaster response.

Richardson, the current acting administrator, is a former U.S. Marine and DHS official without any previous experience in emergency management.

Richardson left many FEMA staff baffled when he said in June that he was not aware that the U.S. has a hurricane season, which begins in June and lasts through November.

(Reporting by Tim Reid; Editing by Ross Colvin, Paul Simao, Andrea Ricci and David Gregorio)