Nearly 180 current and former employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency warned Congress that spending cuts, leadership turnover and political interference under President Donald Trump are eroding the agency’s ability to respond to disasters and could trigger a catastrophe comparable to Hurricane Katrina. The “Katrina Declaration,” sent on Aug. 25—exactly 20 years after the 2005 storm—was signed by 35 named staff and roughly 145 anonymous colleagues. The employees say Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s order that she personally review all contracts and grants above $100,000, along with plans to eliminate about $1 billion in resilience grants and suspend the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, has slowed aid and prevention work. They cite the July 4 floods in central Texas, which killed 138 people, as evidence that red-tape delays jeopardise lives. FEMA has already lost about 2,000 staff this year—roughly one-third of its permanent workforce—and is led by acting administrator David Richardson, a former Marine with no emergency-management background who recently admitted he was unaware of the U.S. hurricane season. Employees argue these moves reverse safeguards embedded in the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 and ask lawmakers to make FEMA an independent Cabinet-level agency to protect it from political meddling. Acting FEMA press secretary Daniel Llargues said in a statement that the administration is ‘committed to ensuring FEMA delivers for the American people,’ contending that the reforms target inefficiency and excessive bureaucracy. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson added that the new oversight is designed to put ‘taxpayer dollars into survivors’ hands’ more quickly. The dispute surfaces two months into the Atlantic hurricane season and as Trump presses to devolve more disaster-response responsibility to states. Whether Congress intervenes will shape the agency’s capacity as climate-fuelled storms intensify and Katrina’s lessons fade from memory.