Former Federal Emergency Management Agency employees wrote a letter to Congress with strongly worded criticism of Donald Trump’s recent overhaul of the agency, making very concerning claims that FEMA now risks repeating the same mistakes made during Hurricane Katrina. This is not the first letter written by a federal agency to Congress. Just recently, the CDC took the same route after its headquarters in Atlanta was shot at by a lone gunman. Employees at the agency demanded that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. strongly disavow the conspiracies spread by his supporters, conspiracies that have fueled public distrust of government agencies. What stands out in both these letters is the number of anonymous signatories, who chose not to reveal their identities out of fear of politically motivated retaliation. CNN reports that the FEMA letter was titled the “Katrina Declaration” to highlight just how dire the situation has become as the anniversary of the hurricane approaches. Katrina was so devastating that lawsuits over the response are still ongoing to this day, with Brad Pitt reportedly still in court because of the resettlement housing project his charity oversaw for displaced communities. The Katrina Declaration accuses Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem of eroding FEMA’s capabilities, most notably through the appointment of unqualified leaders at the helm of the agency. The letter also alleges that the Trump administration has engaged in politically motivated firings and urges Congress to step in to ensure that if the nation ever faced a disaster as grave as Hurricane Katrina, FEMA would be prepared and not gutted. Hurricane Katrina killed 1,400 people and displaced thousands more. The botched response was one of the most infamous embarrassments of George W. Bush’s administration and one he later admitted was among his worst moments in office — especially after a very different Kanye West than the one we know today accused him of not caring about Black people live on television. That hurricane did, however, inspire the Bush administration to jumpstart a brand new and more efficient era of FEMA that was meant to ensure such a disaster would never happen again. The reform that was the most important was the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act, which amongst many other things ensured FEMA’s independence. At the time, this move was considered vital for swift responses to disasters, but the Trump administration has been chipping away at this, and the Texas flooding response was already an ample example of how that move has been affecting FEMA. The letter from the former FEMA employees partly read, “Our shared commitment to our country, our oaths of office, and our mission of helping people before, during, and after disasters compel us to warn Congress and the American people of the cascading effects of decisions made by the current administration.” The letter further adds that roughly a third of FEMA staff have left their posts this year alone as part of what it calls the DOGE effort of cost-cutting measures. FEMA’s former employees are not only asking for protection from political meddling but also warning of an impending dissolution of the agency itself — one that would expose Americans to another Hurricane Katrina-type response if such a disaster were ever to occur again.