Approximately 20 employees at the Federal Emergency Management Agency have been placed on leave

after they signed an open letter on Monday criticizing the Trump administration's cuts and personnel

decisions at the agency.

The letter warns the changes undermine progress FEMA's made and the decades after Hurricane

Katrina, a storm that slammed into the Gulf Coast

20 years ago this week, killing more than 1,000 people and displacing hundreds of thousands more.

We're joined now by someone who has nearly a decade of experience at the top of that agency,

Craig Fugate, who was nominated by Barack Obama and served as FEMA administrator from 2009 to 2017.

Craig Fugate, welcome back to the NewsHour. Thanks for joining us.

Thanks for having me.

So this letter was signed by 180 current and former FEMA staffers, many of them doing so anonymously.

In the letter, they said they sent it, quote, to prevent not only another national

catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina, but the effective dissolution of FEMA itself and the abandonment

of the American people such an event would represent. Craig, before we get into the details of the

letter, what does it say to you that they felt the need to send it at all?

You know, every federal employee takes an oath of office.

And that oath of office refers to, you know, defending the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

But it goes down further and says uphold the duties of your office.

And that's an oath you're sworn to.

So for these people to find that they were placed in a situation where if they followed their oath, they needed to speak up.

It had been a lot easier just to go along and keep their jobs.

Many of these folks will face potential termination.

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