This week saw over 190 employees at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sign an open letter condemning President Donald Trump's leadership.

In response, the Trump administration has dropped the hammer by putting a dozen of the signatories on leave. 

FEMA spokesperson says signatories are "invested in the status quo"

According to Fox News, a FEMA spokesperson issued a statement which slammed the motives of those who signed the open letter.

"It is not surprising that some of the same bureaucrats who presided over decades of inefficiency are now objecting to reform," a FEMA spokesperson was quoted as saying.

"Change is always hard," the spokesperson declared. "It is especially for those invested in the status quo, who have forgotten that their duty is to the American people, not entrenched bureaucracy."

"Under the Biden administration, the American people were abandoned as disasters ravaged North Carolina and needed aid was denied based on party affiliation in Florida," the figure complained.

"Our obligation is to survivors, not to protecting broken systems. Under the leadership of Secretary Noem, FEMA will return to its mission of assisting Americans at their most vulnerable," the spokesperson added.

Open letter referenced Hurricane Katrina

The FEMA letter referenced Hurricane Katrina, a devastating 2005 storm that caused mass death and destruction in New Orleans as well as surrounding areas.

"Decisions made by FEMA’s Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Administrator (SOPDA) David Richardson, Former SOPDA Cameron Hamilton, and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem erode the capacity of FEMA and our State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial (SLTT) partners, hinder the swift execution of our mission, and dismiss experienced staff whose institutional knowledge and relationships are vital to ensure effective emergency management," the letter claimed.

"Hurricane Katrina was not just a natural disaster, but a man-made one: the inexperience of senior leaders and the profound failure by the federal government to deliver timely, unified, and effective aid to those in need left survivors to fend for themselves for days, and highlighted how Black, Indigenous, and low-income communities are disproportionally affected by disasters," it stated.

"These failures prompted Congress to pass the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 (PKEMRA), which introduced safeguards to ensure such shortcomings of disaster preparation and response would not be repeated," the letter alleged.

DHS secretary called for FEMA to be abolished

"However, two decades later, FEMA is enacting processes and leadership structures that echo the conditions PKEMRA was designed to prevent," it asserted.

Fox News noted how the president has been intensely critical of FEMA over its response to Hurricane Helene late last year.

When asked in February how Trump could best handle the agency, DHS Secretary Noem told CNN that it should be abolished.