Sen. Thom Tillis Skewers Kristi Noem’s Leadership Over Disaster Response at FEMA

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis admonished Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over her “failure” in leading the Department of Homeland Security in a Senate Judiciary hearing on Tuesday.

The North Carolina lawmaker reproached Noem over the slow trickle of funding to his state following Hurricane Helene from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is overseen by DHS. Tillis accused Noem of violating the Homeland Security Act of 2002 by creating hurdles for the relief fund cash flow.

“You failed at FEMA,” said Tillis, who is retiring at the end of his term and has previously called on Noem to resign. “The Homeland Security Act of 2002 expressly prohibits the secretary of Homeland Security from restricting or diverting FEMA resources from the agency’s mission. Based on your disaster response, the chart that I just showed you, I have reason to believe that you’re violating the law, either knowingly or unknowingly.”

FEMA employees have expressed frustration about the agency’s rule on approving all expenses over $100,000 that has delayed disaster response and hazard mitigation efforts.

“This is what we need more of,” Tillis said, pointing to the chart highlighting FEMA’s performance under Trump’s first term in office. “I’m convinced you can’t do it. If you’re requesting a review of $100,000 and up, it begs the question, Why? Why would you be involved in that? Why would that be a policy?”

Noem did not directly respond to any of the senator’s criticisms of how she was running FEMA.

Tillis also asked questions about the department’s approach to immigration. He threatened to block nominations and deny a quorum for the committee’s future business if he didn’t get the information he requested from the agency.

Tuesday’s hearing mainly focused on the department’s other responsibilities, such as guardrails on federal immigration officers and its plans to bolster security efforts after the U.S. attacks against Iran.

But DHS has been shut down for more than two weeks, and FEMA, which handles disaster response, has been under a microscope as the agency’s funding in the Disaster Relief Fund begins to run low.

Early last week, DHS announced that it was pausing disaster aid for long-term recovery projects. The agency seemed to do an about-face later last week when it was reported that $5 billion in long-desired disaster relief would be released.

Noem told lawmakers that the agency’s funding to respond to disasters is dwindling.

“FEMA, our ability to fund disaster response is virtually gone,” Noem said during the hearing. “It needs to be refunded. Our FEMA employees are out there doing work every single day. But we have 10,800 individuals that are funded out of the Disaster Relief Fund that could potentially not be there for them and not respond to individuals who need it when they have those terrible storms or devastating crises.”