Publicly, Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noem says the Federal Emergency Management Agency needs to be redirected or completely removed.
“We’re eliminating FEMA,” Noem said at a televised meeting of President Donald Trump’s cabinet in March.
But with the start of hurricane season, Noem has quietly maintained key employees behind the scenes and pushed backstage to approve refunds for previously disaster-hit states.
Trump himself spoke about the possibility of “removing” FEMA shortly after he was launched for his second term while looking at North Carolina to see the region of the state that was affected by Hurricane Helen. There was no official indication that his administration, including Noem, was reconsidering its stance. In fact, Cameron Hamilton, the administration’s former Adict FEMA administrator, was removed from work a day after testifying at a Congressional hearing that he didn’t think it had “the best advantages of the American people.” Homeland Security spokesman Tricia McLaughlin told NBC News that the move was not a response to his testimony.
However, it appears to be internally aware. This means that without a plan for how the country moves forward without FEMA, key elements of government agencies and their work will need to remain for now.
According to an internal document reviewed by NBC News, on May 19, NOEM approved a request from newly installed Adict FEMA administrator David Richardson to maintain 2,652 employees that had expired between April and December. Employees are part of the executives of FEMA’s On-Call Response/Recovery Employees (CORE) group and are always employed for a certain period of 2-4 years. Their departure this year would have left FEMA without a large number of key employees during hurricane season. FEMA had 8,802 total employees as of fiscal year 2022, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office.
FEMA employees told NBC News that the workforce seemed surprised and that Noem was pleased that they decided to keep core employees during hurricane season after managers moved to cut them down.
FEMA was moving to retain these key employees, according to FEMA disaster approval data.
Three sources familiar with Noem’s recent actions say she has supported FEMA to White House and pushed the nation back to refund the country, compared to her previous secretary.
State and local governments are eligible by law to have 75% of the cost of a disaster reimbursed by the federal government. All of the above are determined by a fixed type. Or by the President if the requirements for the ceremony are not met. In the past, the White House generally approved what FEMA officials deemed appropriate based on those formulas, and according to two sources familiar with the disaster approval process, the Secretary of Homeland Security has mostly acted as rubber stamps. But the White House has reduced the role of FEMA, and at least last week the White House repeatedly pushed back against FEMA recommendations, according to one of the sources familiar with Noem’s recent actions, encouraging more states to bail themselves out. And Noem was involved.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, also known as FEMA, is an agency created to respond to disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, and earthquakes. This is what you need to know.
DHS spokesman McLaughlin said in a statement seeking comment on the article: “This is a sad attempt by the mainstream media to drive the false narrative of the sunlight between President Trump and the media secretary.
Previous administrations generally approved a refund that FEMA deemed to have to decide, so states may not have the capacity to cover the burden without planning years ago.
“For a state like North Carolina, that’s important. And in a state like Alabama or Mississippi, it’s going to make the state go bankrupt,” said Michael Cohen, who was FEMA’s chief of staff during the Biden administration. “They need to get rid of bonds. They have to see how they increase their tax revenue. For some of these states, it may be twice the annual budget for the year. So when the DHS secretary or the White House says the states have to own the issue… these states need to have a different mindset about how they budget.”
Although core employees are retained, this year, for the most part, voluntarily, has raised concerns among internal and external observers and council members about their ability to respond during hurricane season. The 16 senior officials, whose departures were announced in an internal email last week, had combined 228 years of experience at FEMA. Four additional senior executive departures were announced on Wednesday, and was announced in an email from the FEMA chair.
“It’s like having a relay team, and instead of having six members, you only have four. Yeah, you can do that, but these four runners have to run more than they’re trained,” said an FEMA employee.
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