“As a former Emergency Management Director of Florida, I am alarmed by reports that the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) response to the Texas floods was delayed and hampered by a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ‘cost-control’ policy imposed by Secretary Kristi Noem,” Moskowitz wrote in a letter to the top lawmakers on the House Committee on Homeland Security and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on Thursday.
Moskowitz wrote in the letter that the new DHS “cost-control” policy’s threshold of $100,000 is “almost meaningless” in “the context of disaster operations.” “As a result, this policy stripped FEMA of its ability to act in real time and delayed every mayor aspect of the response.”
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The Democrat also pointed to CNN reporting that Urban Search and Rescue teams were not pre-positioned as the disaster unfolded. Moskowitz added in the letter that “perhaps most troubling is that, even as FEMA scrambled to respond to the deadly Texas floods, Secretary Noem has seemingly doubled down on her plan to dismantle the agency.”
Kristi Noem said during Wednesday’s meeting: “Federal emergency management should be state and locally led, rather than how it has operated for decades. It has been slow to respond at the federal level. It’s even been slower to get the resources to Americans in crisis and that is why this entire agency needs to be eliminated as it exists today, and remade into a responsive agency.”She wrote on X on Thursday: “The immediate disaster response was swift and efficient. DHS assets, including the U.S. Coast Guard, Border Patrol, and FEMA personnel surged into unprecedented action alongside Texas first responders. This was a historic, first-of-its-kind approach to disaster funding: putting states first by providing upfront recovery support — moving money faster than ever and jump starting recovery.”Asked if Trump was reconsidering his plan to shutter FEMA, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday: “The president wants to ensure American citizens always have what they need during times of need. Whether that assistance comes from states or the federal government, that’s a policy discussion that will continue.”
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“They don’t know what the F they’re doing,” said Moskowitz — using Trump’s explicit comments on Israel and Iran breaking a ceasefire deal last month — in an interview with MSNBC.
“If accurate, this represents a major deviation from long-standing FEMA protocol that may have slowed down lifesaving efforts and contributed to the tragedy’s severity.”
Kristi Noem, which oversees FEMA, had been under intense fire from Democrats as emergency officials have detailed an effort to cut spending that requires her to personally sign off on contracts or grants above $100,000 before those funds are released.
The new policy, sources told CNN, impeded efforts to save lives in Texas as Noem didn’t authorize FEMA’s deployment of its Urban Search and Rescue teams for more than 72 hours after flooding started in the Lone Star State. At least 120 people have died due to the devastating floods and over 170 have been reported missing, as of Thursday night.
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Kristi Noem doubles down on call to axe FEMA
Amid the growing criticism, Kristi Noem has doubled down on her call to eliminate FEMA but also said it should be “remade” as the agency responds to floods in Texas. Kristi Noem said FEMA has been “slower to get the resources to Americans in crisis, and that is why this entire agency needs to be eliminated as it exists today and remade into a responsive agency.”
However, it is not entirely clear what eliminating and re-creating the agency entails. The Trump administration has time and again maintained it wants the states to play a larger role in responding to such disasters. But Kristi Noem also doubled down on that idea Wednesday, appearing by video at a meeting of the FEMA Review Council.
“What President Trump has empowered us to do is to let these states and local emergency management officials run and make decisions that best respond to their communities, and we be a support that comes in and comes alongside them when they need us,” she said.
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The DHS said Noem did not need to initially authorize additional FEMA resources because the department used other DHS search and rescue assets. President Donald Trump has pledged to scrap the federal agency in charge of disaster relief and return disaster response to the states. Experts have warned that dismantling the agency completely would leave gaps in crucial services and funding. However, Trump also recently said changes would wait until after hurricane season.
While Noem also originally said in March that she wanted to “eliminate FEMA,” she later said she wants to eliminate the agency “as it exists today.” Her latest comments come as FEMA is responding to major flooding in Texas that has killed more than 100 people.
