By Ted Hesson and Nathan Layne
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Sunday defended FEMA’s response to deadly floods in Texas last week, saying her agency acted swiftly and that Texas officials had praised the administration’s actions.
During an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Noem denied that a memo she issued in June requiring her to approve FEMA expenditures over $100,000 had caused the agency to move more slowly.
“Those claims are absolutely false,” Noem said. “Within just an hour or two after the flooding, we had resources from the Department of Homeland Security there.”
President Donald Trump suggested after taking office in January that his administration would abolish FEMA, formally called the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Republican president said the agency had bungled past disasters and that federal aid could go directly to states.
But in the midst of U.S. hurricane season and the aftermath of the Texas floods, Trump and his top officials have taken a softer tone, indicating the agency could be rebranded.
“I think he wants it to be remade,” Noem said on Sunday.
Flash floods swept through parts of Texas Hill Country on July 4, killing at least 120 people and leaving another 160 still missing. The disaster put a renewed focus on Trump administration moves to deemphasize FEMA.
As of mid-May, the agency had lost 2,000 full-time employees – a third of its staff – due to terminations and buyouts.
Noem issued a memo on June 11 that called for U.S. Department of Homeland Security agencies, including FEMA, to submit for her review any contract for more than $100,000.
The memo, reviewed by Reuters, said agencies should allow at least five days for her office to review the funding requests.
Reuters spoke with several current and former FEMA officials who worried the spending cap could slow down the agency’s response to disasters.
The deployment of national search and rescue teams managed by FEMA did not appear in the agency’s daily briefing until July 8 and four current and former officials said the spending cap had slowed it down.
Following the Texas floods, one former FEMA official said Noem needed to approve resources that previously would have been deployed more quickly, including law enforcement officers used for security and crews with saws to clear debris from roads.
“FEMA’s never been quick,” the former official said. “This is slowing down the speed which they had before.”
Noem on Sunday denied a New York Times report that thousands of calls to FEMA from victims of the Texas floods went unanswered because Noem had not renewed the contracts.
“Those contracts were in place, no employees were off of work,” Noem said. “Every one of them was answering calls.”
An internal FEMA briefing document reviewed by Reuters said Noem had approved contracts for call center support as of July 10, but did not provide further details.
New flash flood warnings were in place on Sunday across central Texas, including in Texas Hill Country, a FEMA bulletin said.
U.S. Representative Tony Gonzales, a Republican whose district included flood-hit areas, warned on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ that the region could face a lengthy recovery.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” he said.
(Reporting by Ted Hesson; Additional reporting by Leah Douglas; Editing by Scott Malone and Deepa Babington)
