2026-09-12 15:19:06 / 路透社
2026年1月24日，美国华盛顿特区，联邦应急管理局（FEMA）员工在该局国家响应协调中心的新闻发布会前工作。路透社/内森·霍华德 购买授权
- 概要
- 法官表示，国土安全部无权下令联邦应急管理局裁员
- 原告方辩称，裁员会干扰灾害响应任务
- 周五的裁决未涉及救济措施或处罚
9月12日（路透社）——一名美国法官裁定，特朗普政府下令联邦应急管理局削减半数员工的行为违反了法律。
美国旧金山地区联邦法官苏珊·伊尔斯顿在周五晚发布的裁决中表示，美国国土安全部篡夺了联邦应急管理局对自身人事的权限，并指示该机构削减数千个灾害响应岗位，此举属违法行为。
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尽管联邦应急管理局隶属于国土安全部，但2005年卡特里娜飓风过后通过的一项联邦法律规定，该部门“不得大幅或显著削减[联邦应急管理局的]权限、职责或职能”。
伊尔斯顿同意提起诉讼的工会的说法，她表示，国土安全部去年终止联邦应急管理局续签数千名待命后备人员的临时合同的行为违反了法律，这些后备人员负责应对灾害。
“案卷中没有证据表明，针对这一政策转变以及国土安全部随后对联邦应急管理局续签权限施加的条件，存在合理的决策过程，”伊尔斯顿写道。
周五的裁决未涉及救济措施或处罚。伊尔斯顿是比尔·克林顿总统任命的法官，她表示这些问题将在下月的另一项裁决中处理，并指出双方可以就她应为工会提供的救济范围提交辩护陈述。
联邦应急管理局、国土安全部以及美国最大的联邦工会、本案原告之一的美国联邦政府雇员联合会，周六均未立即回应置评请求。
工会于1月修改了去年提起的诉讼，该诉讼更广泛地质疑特朗普政府发起的大规模裁员计划。
工会称，联邦应急管理局的计划裁员是非法的，因为这会破坏其核心的灾害响应任务，未获得国会批准，且是由前国土安全部长克里斯蒂·诺姆下令的，而非由联邦应急管理局内部主动启动。
特朗普政府辩称，联邦应急管理局在决定合适的人员编制水平上拥有相当大的灵活性。唐纳德·特朗普总统此前曾暗示，联邦应急管理局应该被废除，各州应自行负责应急准备工作。特朗普去年还成立了一个委员会，审查该机构的运作情况。
伊尔斯顿在6月拒绝立即叫停裁员计划，理由是联邦应急管理局至少暂时放弃了其裁员计划。
但她在周五的裁决中写道，联邦应急管理局似乎正在推进裁员计划。伊尔斯顿表示，联邦应急管理局将下一财年的员工编制预计为11383人，约为此前水平的一半，但选择这一数字没有任何依据。
法官在另一项裁决中还批评了联邦应急管理局和国土安全部官员使用个人手机上的Signal通讯应用程序就裁员计划进行沟通并删除相关信息的行为。
伊尔斯顿表示，这些信息本应与本案相关，且今后她将“推定丢失的Signal信息对被告不利，因为这些信息本可以进一步证明违法行为的存在”。
丹尼尔·维斯纳 纽约奥尔巴尼报道；塞尔吉奥·诺恩 编辑
US judge rules that Trump plan to halve FEMA workforce violated law
2026-09-12 15:19:06 / Reuters
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees work ahead of a press conference at the FEMA National Response Coordination Center in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 24, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard Purchase Licensing Rights
- Summary
- Homeland Security Department can’t order job cuts at FEMA, judge says
- Cuts would interfere with disaster response mission, plaintiffs argue
- Friday’s ruling does not include remedies or penalties
Sept 12 (Reuters) – A U.S. judge has ruled that the Trump administration broke the law by ordering the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cut its workforce in half.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco in
a decision
issued late Friday, said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security acted unlawfully by usurping FEMA’s authority over its own personnel and steering the agency to cut thousands of disaster-response jobs.
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While FEMA is part of DHS, a federal law adopted after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 says the department “may not substantially or significantly reduce [FEMA’s] authorities, responsibilities, or functions.”
Agreeing with unions that sued, Illston said the department violated the law when it moved last year to stop FEMA from renewing the temporary contracts of thousands of on-call reservists who respond to disasters.
“There is no evidence in the record reflecting reasoned decision-making for this about-face or for the subsequent conditions DHS placed on FEMA’s renewal authority,” Illston wrote.
Friday’s ruling did not include remedies or penalties. Illston, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, wrote those would be addressed in a separate ruling next month and said the parties may submit briefings on the scope of relief she should provide to the unions.
FEMA, DHS and the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest U.S. federal worker union and a plaintiff in the case, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday.
The unions in January amended a lawsuit they had filed last year that more broadly challenged mass layoffs initiated by the Trump administration.
The planned cuts at the emergency management agency are unlawful, the unions say, because they would undermine its core disaster‑response mission, were not approved by Congress, and were ordered by former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem rather than initiated within FEMA itself.
The Trump administration has argued that FEMA has considerable flexibility to decide proper staffing levels. President Donald Trump previously has suggested that FEMA should be abolished and that states should be responsible for their emergency preparedness. Trump last year created a council to review the agency’s operations.
Illston in June declined to immediately block the job cuts, finding that FEMA had at least temporarily backed away from its plans.
But she wrote on Friday that FEMA appeared to be moving ahead with the cuts. FEMA projected its staffing levels for the upcoming fiscal year at 11,383 employees, or approximately half of prior levels, without any basis for choosing that number, Illston said.
The judge in
a separate decision
also faulted FEMA and DHS officials for using the Signal messaging app on their personal cell phones to communicate about staffing cuts and deleting the messages.
Illston said those messages would have been relevant to the lawsuit and that moving forward she would presume “that the lost Signal messages would have been unfavorable to Defendants because they would have been further evidence” of unlawful conduct.
Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Sergio Non
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