US judge rules that Trump plan to halve FEMA workforce violated law

A US judge has ruled that the Trump administration broke the law by ordering the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to cut its workforce in half. According to US District Judge Susan Illston, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) acted unlawfully by taking control of FEMA's personnel decisions and directing the agency to cut thousands of disaster-response jobs.

The ruling stated that DHS violated a federal law adopted after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which prohibits the department from substantially or significantly reducing FEMA's authorities, responsibilities, or functions. Specifically, Illston found that DHS unlawfully stopped FEMA from renewing temporary contracts of thousands of on-call reservists who respond to disasters, without providing evidence of reasoned decision-making.

The ruling did not include remedies or penalties, which will be addressed in a separate decision next month. The parties involved, including FEMA, DHS, and the American Federation of Government Employees, may submit briefings on the scope of relief to be provided to the unions.

Brief written by urgent.news from CNBC, The Economic Times - Economy, Investing.com — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.