ANNISTON, Ala. \u2014 It\u2019s the disaster she didn\u2019t see coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aileen Reneau, 30, had worked at the Federal Emergency Management Agency for less than a year, helping to train first responders at FEMA\u2019s Center for Domestic Preparedness, the only such facility in the country. She was also deployed to North Carolina for six weeks after Hurricane Helene. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Air Force veteran and mother of two was laid off on Presidents Day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt hurts,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was a stab in the back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since Inauguration Day, more than 200 employees at FEMA have been cut \u2014 just 1% of the roughly 20,000 employees in the agency. Still, a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that FEMA had a 35% gap in necessary staffing in 2022, and a heavy workload was leading to burnout and retention issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe all know that these disasters are going to increase in frequency and in severity,\u201d Reneau said. \u201cClimate change is real, and unfortunately, we already were understaffed, and now we are absolutely gutted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A senior White House official said President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order soon that will be aimed at empowering state and local governments to handle disaster relief. Trump has previously said he wanted to give at least a percentage of federal money set aside for FEMA to states instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reneau said she was blindsided when she learned she was being let go. She had glowing performance reviews, she said, yet her termination letter cited poor performance. She is appealing the decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI believed that the reduction in force might be something to be reckoned with, but I wasn\u2019t concerned about losing my job in what is, quite frankly, an unethical and illegal matter,\u201d she said. \u201cI thought, well, they\u2019re going to use care and attention, they\u2019re going to take a scalpel to fraud, waste and abuse, not just hack off the entire limb.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cuts by the Trump administration\u2019s so-called Department of Government Efficiency\u2002<\/a>are rattling communities both large and small. Some 80% of the federal workforce is based outside of the Washington, D.C. area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Reneau said she loved her job. So did one of her co-workers, John Wippler, a 31-year-old Marine Corps veteran and father of three who is also appealing his termination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m sure there are some things that do need to be cut down and removed, but does everything need to be?\u201d Wippler said. “I think the stability and security of it was really exciting. To have really good health care for the first time for my family. To feel like I was really providing in a really important way and finding a different avenue to kind of serve my country, where it wasn\u2019t in the Marines.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Trump administration has laid off tens of thousands of workers across the federal government. The White House has said repeatedly that cutting waste, fraud and abuse was a key reason voters chose Trump, who has railed repeatedly against FEMA, especially in the aftermath of last year\u2019s Hurricane Helene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cVery bureaucratic and it\u2019s very slow,\u201d Trump said of the agency in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n