FEMA senior officials exit en masse as Trump targets agency
By Ted Hesson and Nathan Layne
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency announced the departure of 16 senior executives on Wednesday, a significant shakeup of its leadership ranks less than two weeks before the start of what is expected to be a busy hurricane season.
Those leaving include MaryAnn Tierney, a 26-year emergency management veteran who until May 9 had been the agency's acting No. 2, as well as key people in finance and disaster response, according to internal emails seen by Reuters.
The agency, which coordinates the federal response to natural disasters, has been roiled by the loss of hundreds of staff and low morale since finding itself targeted by President Donald Trump.
Trump wants FEMA to be shrunk or even abolished, arguing that many of its functions can be carried out by the states.
The changes have, however, disrupted the agency's planning for the hurricane season, stoking concern that it will be ill-equipped to deal with any disaster.
The departures unveiled on Wednesday follow the abrupt firing of FEMA's then-acting administrator Cameron Hamilton earlier this month. The agency's new leader, David Richardson, has vowed to "run right over" staff who resist reforms.
In emails to staff, acting FEMA chief of staff Julia Moline thanked the departing executives and announced several replacements, including the appointment of Cynthia Spishak as acting deputy administrator, the role Tierney held.
FEMA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The mass departure of senior talent represents a significant loss of institutional knowledge that will further degrade FEMA's capacity to respond to disasters, said Michael Coen, former FEMA chief of staff under the administrations of former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Coen called Tierney, a regional administrator who has managed over 100 disaster and emergency declarations for an area that includes Pennsylvania and Delaware, a "leader of leaders" and said she "will be the most significant loss."
Tierney said her decision to resign was not easy.
"FEMA is not a job, it's a calling," Tierney said in a statement to Reuters. "It was a privilege to serve alongside a team of people who dedicate themselves to helping their fellow Americans on their worst day."
Other departing executives include acting chief financial officer Monroe Neal; Eric Leckey, who was responsible for human resources and other management support functions; and Leiloni Stainsby, a high-ranking executive in the agency's office overseeing response and recovery operations.
Forecasters have predicted a busier-than-average Atlantic hurricane season, which starts June 1.
Representative Bennie Thompson, the senior Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee with oversight of FEMA, said in a statement that the exit of so many senior executives exacerbated his concerns about the agency.
"Decimating FEMA's leadership will do nothing to help the agency prepare for the upcoming hurricane season," he said.
Richardson has promised the agency will be prepared.
Earlier on Wednesday, he sent a memo to staff rescinding the agency's strategic plan for 2022-2026 because it "contained objectives that bear no connection to FEMA accomplishing its mission." Richardson said in the memo that a new strategy for 2026-2030 would be developed this summer.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Ukrainian woman searches for husband lost in action two years ago
By Tom Balmforth CHERNIHIV, Ukraine (Reuters) -When gaunt Ukrainian soldiers dismount from buses as part of prisoner swaps with Russia, Mariia Pylnyk tries to find out anything she can about her missing husband from the freed men, and hopes, just maybe, that he will be among them. Holding up a photograph of Dmytro Pylnyk, lost in action in early 2023, she has many questions. What happened to his unit when it was ambushed by Russian forces? Was he captured by Russia? Could he eventually be released? The mass prisoner swap last month was an opportunity for people like her to ask troops just out of Russian captivity about missing loved ones who they believe, or simply hope, are prisoners of war. The alternative is unthinkable. "I hold out great hope that someone has heard something, seen something," Pylnyk, 29, told Reuters at a recent exchange in May, flanked by other relatives of those missing in action. "My son and I are waiting for (his) dad to come home. Hope dies last. God willing, it'll all be okay and dad will come back." Precise numbers for soldiers missing in action are not made public. For Ukrainians, and for Russians on the other side of the conflict, it can be hard to find out even basic information. Pylnyk says she has written to government agencies and Russian authorities and learned almost nothing. Ukrainian officials say more than 70,000 Ukrainians have been registered missing since 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion. The majority are from the military but the figure also includes civilians. Another 12,000 have been removed from the list after being identified among the dead or returned in exchanges. Petro Yatsenko, a spokesman for the Coordination Council that arranges prisoner swaps from the Ukrainian side, said Russia had never notified Kyiv which soldiers it is holding prisoner. Ukraine collects that data by other means as best it can, he said. Pylnyk and others like her share information in online chat groups and use it to try to piece together what happened. "Misfortune brought us together," she said. "After two years of this, we're like a family." LAST PHONE CALL Dmytro Pylnyk, an electrician by trade, was drafted into the army in late 2022. He phoned home often so that his wife did not worry but last called on their son Artem's third birthday on Feb. 27, 2023. He was deployed from Kharkiv region towards Bakhmut, a small city that later fell to Russian forces after fierce fighting. His unit's convoy was caught in a Russian ambush, Mariia Pylnyk said she had learned. "The guys ran any which way," she said, citing conversations with commanders who told her 41 soldiers were missing in action. Two were captured and have since been released. One, who was freed in an exchange at Easter and had lost both his arms, was unable to share any valuable information, she said. The second refused to talk. The pace of prisoner swaps has increased in the last month. Ukraine and Russia each released 1,000 prisoners in a three-day exchange last month, the only tangible outcome of direct talks in Istanbul. A prisoner swap of under-25s on Monday was the first in a series of exchanges also expected to include each side repatriating the remains of thousands. Mariia Pylnyk has given her son's DNA to the authorities so that if Dmytro is confirmed killed in action they will be notified. "We all understand that this is war and anything is possible. But to this day, I don't believe it and I don't feel that he is dead. I feel like he's alive and God willing he'll return," she said. NO SIGNAL TO CALL She lives with Artem, now five, in Pakul, a village in the northern Chernihiv region that was briefly occupied by Russians. She has not told Artem his father is missing in action. "He knows that dad is a soldier, dad is a good man, dad is at work and just doesn't have any signal to call," she said. She takes comfort from seeing families reunited and never allows herself to cry in front of her son. She used to work in a shop, but Artem has often been ill. The angst of the last two years have taken their toll on her health too. She receives state support. Pylnyk has vowed to find her husband but has often not had time to attend prisoner swaps while looking after their son. "Only a weakling can give up, you know, throw up their hands and say that's it, he's not there," she said, adding that she was very emotional when she attended last month's big exchange. "When I was there, the fighting spirit awoke in me that I needed. I have to do this. Who else will do it but me?"
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Chinese state media calls for crackdown on 'zero-mileage used cars'
By Eduardo Baptista BEIJING (Reuters) -The Chinese practice of selling brand new cars as heavily discounted second-hand vehicles to get rid of inventory should be ended, the official newspaper of the country's governing Communist Party said in an article published on Thursday. The People's Daily, which often signals the positions of China's top Party leaders on a variety of issues, called for a crackdown on the practice, also known as zero-mileage used cars, just weeks after Great Wall Motor's Chairman Wei Jianjun publicly condemned it and China's commerce ministry met with Chinese automakers to discuss it. While China's Commerce Ministry did not make public its position, the People's Daily struck a harsh tone, calling out the inflation of sales data motivating Chinese carmakers and urging "tough regulatory action" to restore market order. "This disguised form of price cutting disrupts normal market order and is a striking example of the auto industry's 'involution'," the People's Daily said, using a term popular in China that describes a race to the bottom driven by excessive competition. "Once market competition rules are properly enforced, 'zero-mileage used cars' won't be able to run far — or for long." China is experiencing growing deflationary pressures as U.S. tariffs add to the gloomy mood in the world's No.2 economy. Companies in sectors from fast food to high fashion have been cutting prices amid concerns about oversupply and sluggish household demand. Price wars have gripped the Chinese auto industry in recent years, partly driven by slumping domestic consumption and overcapacity that has left many struggling to meet sales targets. While the sale of zero-mileage used cars is seen by many Chinese automakers as an effective way of clearing out an ever-growing inventory of unsold cars, with domestic and overseas consumers lured by deep discounts on what are still brand new cars, the state-run newspaper listed a litany of negative effects caused by the practice. "For manufacturers, this sales tactic may help reduce inventory in the short term but compresses profit margins, increases losses, and hinders investment in product quality and innovation — ultimately harming sustainable development," the article said. "For consumers, what seems like a good deal in terms of price comes with hidden risks: the loss of first-owner benefits, potential battery degradation, and steeper depreciation when reselling," it continued, adding the practice undermines fair competition, distorts market data, and disrupts both new and used car markets. The People's Daily singled out manufacturers of electric vehicles as needing to move beyond "data worship" and competing on volume, in order to focus on product quality and technological innovation. It did not name any specific automakers. The newspaper also listed measures Chinese regulatory authorities should adopt in order to prevent the sale of zero-mileage used cars, including strengthening oversight of second-hand vehicle registration, establishing a vehicle lifecycle tracking system, and strictly controlling the practice of immediate resale after registration.
Boston Globe
25 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
LA stands up to ICE raids. What about Boston?
In fact, Boston activists did rally on Monday in an act coordinated by Service Employees International Union members in support of David Huerta, a prominent labor and civil rights leader in California and SEIU United Service Workers West president, who Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up Related : Advertisement 'When somebody is violently detained as David [Huerta] was — arrested and detained — we're going to stand up and make our voices heard. This is bringing it all to a new level,' Kevin Brown, executive vice president of SEIU 32BJ, told me in an interview before the Monday rally. SEIU 32BJ — which represents more than 185,000 members in a dozen states, including 21,000 in Massachusetts and Rhode Island — calls itself the largest immigrant-majority union membership in the country. Advertisement 'Of course, it's not just about David … this is about the ICE raids, and this is about a fundamental attack on democracy,' Brown said. 'When you mobilize 2,000 National Guard [members], you threaten to bring in the Marines over the objections of the governor and the mayor. ... Yeah, this is pretty bad.' Lucy Pineda, a longtime activist and founder and director of the nonprofit Latinos Unidos en Massachusetts, has been documenting ICE activity daily on social media primarily in Chelsea, East Boston, Everett, and Lynn. '¿Hasta cuándo el pueblo se va a levantar?' When will the people rise up?, Pineda's voice was emotional when she picked up my call Monday morning as she told me about a heart-wrenching ICE raid in Lynn Advertisement ICE's activity in LA seemingly signals a new phase in Trump's immigration crackdown, one that local advocates have been bracing for: workplace raids. To be sure, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, the force behind Trump's immigration plans, has reportedly put pressure on ICE leaders to ' 'What do you mean you're going after criminals?' That flood has begun. But so has the resistance. 'We've been preparing for this level of activity from the Trump administration since he was elected in November,' Brown said. 'We will absolutely do everything that we can lawfully engage in to protect our members' rights.' Advertisement 'Americans are stunned,' David Leopold, an immigration lawyer and former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told me. 'What they voted for was a secure border. What they got is a full-on military-style assault on immigrants.' Marcela García is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at
