The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) does not have thousands of employees sitting idly by, waiting for the next natural disaster. To respond to a national disaster, FEMA borrows federal employees from other federal agencies and uses them to carry out FEMA's response. "Thousands of employees from FEMA and other federal agencies remain on the ground working to meet the needs of disaster survivors and offer assistance", according to
this 12/14/12 FEMA blog entry.
Federal employees who volunteer to work for FEMA earn their regular pay and also collect per-diem.
After Superstorm Sandy, thousands of federal employees from various federal agencies were loaned to FEMA.... including 745 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees. Lisa Farbstein used the opportunity to spin out this puff piece:
Rockland County Times:
TSA Puff Piece by TSA's Lisa Farbstein: Another Side of TSA
Posted December 13th, 2012
A short quote:
These TSA employees, representing more than 200 airports from across the nation, saw a need to help make a difference in the lives of complete strangers at a time when the need was greatest. They rushed to New York State to assist FEMA in its Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts.
Thousands of New York residents-including people in Rockland County-have met the TSA officers, inspectors, administrators and Federal Air Marshals in the days and weeks since the hurricane struck, but odds are that they never realized it because the TSA employees literally traded in their blue TSA uniforms, black TSA inspector jackets and TSA ID badges for a FEMA badge and jacket to help residents recover from the devastation left behind by Super-storm Sandy.
Bruce Forrester, a TSA training instructor from Indianapolis International Airport, arrived in New York knowing that he would miss the birth of his grandson; would miss Thanksgiving with his family; and would have to cancel a planned two-week vacation knowing he would lose those vacation days at the end of the year. He did it because duty called. He knew that at the end of the day, it was more important to help improve the lives of people in need-700 miles away.
The part about losing vacation days is complete crap, per the federal
Office of Personnel Management's page on "Restoration of Annual Leave".
At least FEMA had the good sense to send Farbstein home after only two weeks!