In publicly, the Secretary of Internal Security, Kristi Noem, said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency must be redirected or even deleted.
“We eliminate FEMA,” said Noem at a television meeting by President Donald Trump in March.
But with the hurricane season about to start, Noem quietly pushed behind the scenes to keep the key employees in place and to approve the reimbursements to the states previously affected by a disaster, sources familiar with the situation at NBC News said.
Asset he himself spoke of perhaps “getting rid” of “ FEMA shortly after its inauguration for its second mandate, when it turned in North Carolina to see areas of the State damaged by Hurricane Helene. Nothing indicated public that his administration, including Noem, reconsidant this position – indeed, the administration administrator of the FEMA administration, Cameron Hamilton, was deleted from work One day after testifying during a congress hearing that he does not think that “he is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate” FEMA. Tricia McLaughlin, spokesperson for the Ministry of Internal Security, told NBC News that this decision was not an answer to its testimony.
However, there seems to be internal recognition which, in the absence of a ready plan for the way the country was going to go ahead without Fema, important elements of the agency and its work must remain in place for the moment.
According to internal documents examined by NBC News on May 19, Noem approved a request from the newly installed FEMA administrator, David Richardson, to keep 2,652 employees whose conditions were set between April and December. Employees are part of the FEMA response / recovery (Core) group (Core), for which people are always hired for specific periods of two to four years; Their departures this year would have left FEMA without a large number of key employees during the hurricane season. According to a Government report of responsibilityThe FEMA had 8,802 basic employees in total at the year 2022.
A FEMA employee told NBC News that the job market seemed surprised and happy that Noem decided to keep the main employees during the hurricanes season after the administration has moved to cut them.
The same week, the FEMA moved to maintain these key employees in place, the White House suddenly approved requests for reimbursement of the resumption after loss to 10 states, including some which had been blocked for months, representing 20% of all these approvals in the second term of Trump, according to FEMA disaster approval online.
Three familiar sources with the recent actions of Noem indicate that it has taken a disproportionate role in relation to previous secretaries in the push of the White House to support the FEMA and reimburse the States.
States and local governments have the right to hold 75% of their disaster costs reimbursed by the federal government. Everything that is determined by a fixed formula or, if the requirements of the formula are not satisfied, by the president. In the past, the White House has generally approved what FEMA officials deemed appropriate according to these formulas, leaving the Secretary for Internal Security to operate largely as a rubber stamp, according to two familiar sources with the approval process in the event of a disaster. But with the White House which pushes towards the reduction of the role of FEMA and encourages more states to bail out, at least from last week, the White House had repeatedly rejected the recommendations of FEMA, according to one of the sources familiar with the recent actions of Noem. And Noem was involved.
Asked for comments on this article, McLaughlin, the DHS spokesman, said in a statement: “This is a sad attempt by traditional media to conduct a false story that there is the light of day between President Trump and secretary Noem.
Since previous administrations have generally approved the reimbursements that FEMA determined to make, states may not have the possibility of exhausting the burden without having planned years in advance.
“For a state like North Carolina, it is important. And in a state like Alabama or Mississippi, it would go bankrupt the state,” said Michael Coen, chief of staff of FEMA during the Biden administration. “They should withdraw an obligation. They should examine how they increase tax revenue. For some of these states, it could be double their annual budget for the year. So, when the secretary or white house of the DHS will have to have the problem … These states must have a different state of mind for their budget. ”
Although the basic employees are maintained, a large number of Fema senior executives left this year, largely, voluntarily, raising internal concerns and among external observers and members of the Congress on its ability to respond during the Hurricane season. Sixteen senior officials whose departures were announced in an internal email last week experienced 228 years of experience in Fema. Four other departures of senior executives were announced Wednesday in an e-mail of the acting chief of staff from FEMA, who is herself about to resign.
“It’s like having a relay team, and instead of having six members, you only have four, and yes, you can do it, but these four runners will have to run more than they are formed,” said the employee of FEMA.
