The chaotic summer of the Fema went from bad to bad

The Fema did not respond to Wired’s request for comment.

“It is not surprising that some of the same bureaucrats that have led in efficiency for decades told the GuardianWhich reported the retaliation against the employees who signed the letter. “Change is always difficult. It is especially for those who have invested in the status quo who have forgotten that their duty to the American people, the uninhibited bureaucracy, is.”

The targeting of letter signatures at FEMA gives an earlier move to the Environmental Protection Agency in July when this agency exposed Around 140 employees who signed in a similar public letter.

A FEMA employee who signed the letter this week was concerned about the fact that the agency could try to look for those who have not included their names in the letter – especially given, such as DHS According to reports, polygraphs administered In April tried to identify employees who ran to the press. “I’m worried that they could use similar tactics to identify anonymous signatories,” they say. This employee spoke with cable on the condition of the anonymity because they were not justified to speak to the press.

On Tuesday morning, one day after the employee of the employee of the employees, the former deputy Fema administrator Cameron Hamilton published a criticism of the agency publicly on LinkedIn.

“Statements that @fema works more efficiently and cutting bureaucracy is either: uninformed about the administration of disasters; misleading from civil servants; or lies to the American (sic) to support talks”, he ” wrote. “President Trump and the American people earn better than this … Fema saves money that is good due to the astronomical US debt of the congress. Nevertheless, Fema employees react to completely new forms of bureaucracy that extend the waiting times for recipients of claims and delay the use of time -sensitive resources.”

Hamilton, who was released from his position in May one day after the agency’s statement against the congress in May, did not answer Wired’s questions as to whether his post was associated with the open letter from the employees.

Both Hamilton’s Post and the Open letter call out a new rule that was introduced in June and is prescribed that all spending over $ 100,000 must be checked personally by NoEM. This upper limit, Fema employee, claim in the letter on Monday, “reduces FEMA’s authorities and skills to deliver our mission quickly.” The guideline was shot in July afterwards different Outlets reported that after the floods in Texas, it had led to a delay by the agency’s reaction, in which at least 135 people were killed. The head of the agency’s urban search and rescue manager resigned at the end of July, partly due to the frustration of how the DHS expenditure procedure was delayed during the disaster, CNN reported.

Screenshots of contract data seen by WIRED show that the agency had more than $ 700 million more than $ 700 million from August 7, in order to assign the expenses for non-Disaster expenses before the end of the financial year on September 30th with more than 1,000 open contract measures. The agency seems to feel the pressure of accelerating contract proposals. At the beginning of August, several FEMA employees were asked to voluntarily report over a weekend in order to check the review of contracts in order to prepare them for deregistration. (“A lot of work over the weekend,” read the notes from a meeting.)

“Disaster fees are just sitting,” says a Fema employee with WIRED. “Every single day ask applicants their Fema contact” Where is my money? “. And we are ordered not to say and divide anything.”

As the open letter from the employees roughly says, roughly A third of the full -time employees of the FEMA had already left until May, “led to the loss of irreplaceable institutional knowledge and long -established relationships”. These departures of the employees can further hinder the agency’s efforts in order to implement financial efficiency measures such as the contract reviews. A former FEMA employee says Kabel that the agency began the year with nine lawyers of the procurement team, which help to review financial contracts during a disaster, almost left the entire team and was not assigned a lack of experience as a hurricane season.

“I have no idea what happens,” says the former employee Kabel when a hurricane “and we need a contract lawyer in the shift around the clock.”