Attorneys argued Tuesday over whether a federal judge should block the Trump administration from potentially shrinking the number of disaster relief workers at the Federal Emergency Management Agency by the thousands.
A group of unions and local governments is asking the court to stop the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA, which is part of DHS, from separating those workers from federal employment and prohibit the agencies from carrying out “any further reduction of any FEMA employee positions.”
Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California opened the hearing by saying her “preliminary view” was to deny the request for a preliminary injunction. She said there was not enough evidence about whether DHS ordered FEMA to make staffing cuts and whether those types of disaster relief workers were historically renewed on supervisor recommendations.
