FEMA has told a federal court that it is moving to rehire some of the disaster-response workers whose term-limited contracts were not renewed at the start of the year, setting out the change in a filing dated May 2. An attorney representing the Trump administration wrote that FEMA began offering “new appointments” to disaster workers whose contracts expired during the first three weeks of January, reversing a nonrenewal decision that had drawn litigation from labor and local-government groups.
In the notice submitted to the U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Friday evening, U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian said FEMA has “initiated contact to offer new appointments” to term-limited staff whose contracts expired in early January. The filing came after months of uncertainty surrounding the fate of FEMA’s Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employees, known as CORE, who work on two- to four-year assignments and whose contracts are often routinely renewed.
The federal case grew out of FEMA’s abrupt shift in renewal practices at the start of 2026. According to reporting tied to a sworn declaration by FEMA’s temporary leader, Karen S. Evans, FEMA stopped renewing some CORE employees’ contracts as they expired and extended other appointments by only 90 days at a time. The agency later paused the nonrenewals in late January, just before a severe winter storm affected multiple states, and Evans said that by that point, 159 COREs had not been renewed.
A coalition led by the American Federation of Government Employees sued over the nonrenewals, arguing the changes were part of a wider plan to cut FEMA’s workforce by half and undermine FEMA’s congressional mandate to ensure disaster preparedness. The lawsuit has also placed a spotlight on FEMA’s staffing stability leading into the Atlantic hurricane season and on planning for major national events.
FEMA’s court-facing position also aligns with other personnel actions described in the reporting. Earlier this week, FEMA reinstated 14 employees who had been placed on paid administrative leave for eight months after signing a public letter of dissent critiquing policies at FEMA and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, according to the account of the situation. Those developments were described as part of a broader shift away from the harsher approach taken under Kristi Noem, before she was fired as DHS leader, as DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin took charge.
The administration’s notice does not provide a figure for how many CORE employees received offers. FEMA did not immediately respond to questions about the court notice or the number of employees who were offered appointments, though a spokesperson told The Associated Press on Thursday that FEMA is “addressing outstanding personnel actions to ensure workforce stability and a strong, deployable surge force for upcoming national events and potential disasters.” The spokesperson also declined to comment on specific personnel actions.
The court filing comes amid continued discovery in the lawsuit. Plaintiffs’ lawyers said in a statement submitted to the court Friday evening that they would respond “after proper factual investigation.” Their scheduled deposition of former DHS Deputy Chief of Staff Joseph Guy next week is set to be part of the discovery effort focused on how decision-making led to the CORE dismissals.
Separately, the reporting said FEMA also announced internal changes to appointment terms for CORE disaster workers. It said COREs with contracts ending between January and May that had previously been extended for 90 days “may be reappointed for up to one year,” and that those whose contracts end after May could be renewed on that longer timeframe, according to an email to staff reviewed by AP. The email also said “eligible” FEMA reservists would be renewed for two years, and it pointed to roughly 7,000 reservists in the agency’s surge workforce with contracts expiring May 2.
A FEMA employee who asked to remain anonymous because they said they were not authorized to speak to media told AP they knew of at least two CORE workers who had already been called back. The developments raise questions for the lawsuit about what changes are being made in response to the nonrenewal decision—and how the agency plans to maintain capacity as it prepares for upcoming disasters and major public events.