I Quit FEMA This Week

FEMA Out. 20 years of Federal Service Over.

Wow. The week I left the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ended up being quite a week for FEMA and DHS! In retrospect, its been a 410-day roller coaster since January 20, 2025!

Surprisingly, FEMA outlasted me. I incorrectly assumed that it would be erased the way USAID was — the place where I spent a decade of my professional life. See my earlier USAID obituary. But FEMA may still follow USAID into institutional grave, another victim of this administration.

Disclaimer: the views expressed in this post are solely my own, published under my first amendment rights, and may not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Government or any of its current or former federal agencies. 

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Two Decades of Service

I'm out after serving the executive branch of my country of adoption for twenty years. First was a decade with the United States Agency of International Development (USAID). My USAID stories are in two of my books and in several posts on this blog, e.g, how to organize boycotts, thwarting politicians, and how to fire an Ambassador). 

I spent six years with National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which itself is under the Department of Commerce. Get a taste at my blog post on killing sealions to protect salmon. 

And now, I've just completed four years at FEMA. I must say, a great way to introduce yourself at a social gathering is to say you work for DHS along with the ICE agents!

Two insights percolate to the top of all the my take-aways about working for the executive branch along with millions of other people (2 million employees and many more contractors). First, why government has inefficiences (like any large organization) and second, why decision-making is very complicated. 

What drove me to leave FEMA? 

Two proverbs, equally accurate, help answer this question. (1) What was the straw that broke the camel's back — for which I have to look at all of the pieces of straw that have been piled onto the camel since January 2025. And (2) I could not see the forest because of the trees — and the roads, trails, streams, birds, fish, and animals that constitute a forest. 

I was so focused on the details of what was going on around me at FEMA and within the federal government that I lost track of the big picture. 

What were some of these contributing factors? It must have started with the audacity of January 6th, the Project 2025 report, and the campaigns. Then it manifested, after January 2025, in the blatant and and derogatory attitude towards the federal workforce that the President and his Cabinet continue to exuberate. For example, The Head of the Office of Management and Budget had previously said he wanted to put federal employees intro trauma or make their lives miserable.

Perhaps it was the firehose of (mostly) symbolic executive orders? The executive of a corporation can change things with the stroke of a pen. Not the president. Each executive order placed unrealistic demands on his agencies with impossible timeframes. And a signature does not change things on the ground. Nor do executive orders apply to anyone other than the federal agencies. Not state and local governments, not the private sector, and not any citizen. Many revoked previous executive orders, that, in turn, undid previous decisions. The U.S. cannot govern by executive order. These executive orders have given birth to entire websites dedicated to just tracking them.

Or likely this administration's blatant disregard for the environmental and historic preservation laws and best practices, manifested by changes to regulations, Supreme Court decisions reversing decades of precedent, rescinding the regulations for the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and changing the regulations for the Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act, tearing down the West Wing of the White House, destroying renewable energy efforts, laughing out climate change, and resuscitating coal with the mascot coalie saying mine, baby, mine. 

Perhaps it was the so-called Big Beautiful Bill that further inflated the national debt despite the Republican Party's fiscal conservatism doctrine. Or former co-President Elon Musk, wielding his chainsaw alongside his DOGE boys and reeking havoc among federal employees (federal workers are people too). Or the threat of a Schedule F employee to be strategically nudged out, per the fact sheet issued by the White House. 

Perhaps it was ICE Barbie, the DHS Secretary with her endless scandals, rolex watch, or ICE agents. Her $250m commercials and Trumps wrath was the focus of the week, shadowing her insane testimony to Congress and alleged affair. Now she is out, but it's a revolving door. 

Or perhaps it was the lack of FEMA leadership. Despite having had 4 years to prepare, this administration has yet to nominate someone as the head of FEMA. FEMA has had a revolving door of acting heads . First, Cameron Hamilton, who lasted four months. Then two successors with no disaster experience. First, David Richardson who told all staff on his first day, “Don’t get in my way… I will run right over you”. The same guy who did not know that there was a hurricane season. And second, Karen Evans, accused of being "out of her depth and misrepresenting the facts on the ground." (For a full recap, see Grist’s account of FEMA’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.) 

Set aside the scandals, Epstein files, blanket-dogs-luxury jets-alleged affairs-rolex watch-$100,00 approval-ICE Barbie and trying to look at the forest. Perhaps it may have been our illegal and irresponsible unilateral attack on Iran at the end of February, coupled with Israel's attacks on both Iran and Lebanon. Maybe it was the totality of invasions or attacks since I emigrated to the U.S. and became a citizen in 1989. I've witnessed our attacks in or on Panama, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Haiti. In fact, since I started my federal engagement in 2005, we have either invaded or attacked Somalia, Syria, Honduras, Libya, Venezuela, and now Iran. 

But I had to pause and remember that the U.S. has always been a super power and has always meddled in others' affairs. Our "involvement" in Iran’s spans 75 years since we orchestrated the 1953 coup to remove Iran's Prime Minister and hand power over to the Shah.

Perhaps it was because I saw FEMA move closer to the ICU and hospice. The President clearly wanted to phase out FEMA. The FEMA Council tried to resuscitate it but was shelved. Then all were distracted by the longest government shutdown in history followed shortly by a second one, only for DHS, that continues. With everything else that is going on, it is unlikely to end before the TSA agents go on strike or a Cat 5 hurricane strikes the U.S. mainland.  

In reality, it was all of these. It is a complex tapestry that includes everything. None of them, by themselves, can break the camel's back. 

Was I asked to cross a line?

Let me be blunt and honest. I was never asked to do anything illegal, unethical, or immoral. I was not told to falsify data, shade analysis, or sign my name to conclusions I could not scientifically endorse. Yes, we all had to stop saying or thinking about climate change, diversity, or equity but that, in my book, is not the same as illegal, unethical, or immoral.  

No one leaned across a desk or sent an email demanding something I could not deliver while upholding the oath I took to defend the constitution of the United States. Perhaps they suspected I would not do it and it would be easier to find someone less vocal. I did allude occasionally to quips such as, "fire me if you want", or "I will walk out of the door if ....". While I like to believe those threats worked, in reality, I was just too far removed from the headquarters office in Washington D.C., too far down the organization chart, and in the wrong field (environmental as opposed to policy or program). 

What Do I Think?  

I think I left because I just had enough. Enough of all of the above. And more so, enough of the inertia that seemed to stem, not from incompetence, but as a strategy. Enough of watching ludicrous decisions, indecisions, contradictions, and word twisting. Enough watching FEMA lose cases in the courts, but not caring or changing. 

I left because I just had enough. Enough B.S. Enough of a complete lack of corporate-type leadership. Many real leaders (not managers or supervisors) had already seen the writing on the wall and left with the deferred resignation plans. Some, who are committed to FEMA, opted to stay to try to 'fix' things. But they couldn't, partly because they were not in the top echelon or C-Suite and partly because they were too afraid of losing their jobs. I admire them for their intentions but believe they are too idealistic.

Part of the inertia was inflamed by the lapses in appropriations. More on this in the future, but in essence, DHS did not have to blanket every program, position, and task under the shutdown. In week two, I got my instructions, not from a supervisor but from these instructions posted on the DHS website.  

Source: https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/02/22/1-week-democrats-shutdown-dhs-implements-emergency-measures-conserve-resources-and captured March 6, 2026. 

How would you react to these "instructions"? 

All travel was halted. All work, including those involving deadlines, litigation, or time-sensitive deliverables was discouraged. External communications were shut off. The message was clear: minimize visible activity because we want the American public to hurt even though Congress has not stopped those particular spigots. 

What was my worst part of going to the office? Some of us were paid to do nothing while federal colleagues, deemed “essential” — TSA agents, frontline operators, and even some of the FEMA staff I interacted with — continue to work without pay. That's akin to slavery. 

Another significant straw that broke the camel's back was the massively reduced workload because there were less mitigation grants and fewer declared disasters. That trend started in 2025. More on these in future weeks.

What Do Others Think?

“That’s just another bonehead decision that Kristi Noem has done,” Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, told NOTUS. “Generally, there has always been an exception with ongoing disasters. They’re just being mean. They have significant resources available to them. They can make the adjustment if they want to.” https://mississippitoday.org/2026/02/28/democrats-fema-shutdown-disaster/

Upcoming Posts 

Over the next few months, I hope to publish a series of blog posts about my perspectives of FEMA in a series titled “Top things that surprised me about FEMA”. Stay tuned for my perspective on the future of FEMA, what FEMA does (in my opinion), personnel, shutdowns, flood insurance, environmental impacts, etc. If you want me to cover a particular topic or have a question, please leave an anonymous comment or send me an email.