A recent CNN report blamed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for delaying the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to the Texas flash floods. But the outlet ignored FEMA’s decades-long history of delays and mismanagement.
In the article, anonymous FEMA officials said recent changes to the organization caused delays in its ability to send aid to Texas. Most of the blame fell on Noem’s new rule requiring her personal sign-off on all grants and contracts of more than $100,000.
“We were operating under a clear set of guidance: lean forward, be prepared, anticipate what the state needs, and be ready to deliver it,” one FEMA official told CNN. “That is not as clear of an intent for us at the moment.”
Noem told “Fox & Friends” the CNN story was “absolutely trash,” noting that “Our Coast Guard, our Border Patrol BORTAC (Border Patrol Tactical Unit) teams were there immediately. Every single thing they asked for, we were there.”
But Democrats have used the story to criticize the Trump administration’s response to the Texas floods, which have killed at least 121 people.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) blamed “dramatic cuts” to FEMA and the National Weather Service for a poor federal response to the flood.
But meteorologists say there is no evidence that federal cuts delayed warnings or response times, The Daily Wire previously reported.
“There is little evidence that any of the recent cuts to NOAA/NWS negatively impacted services for this event, regardless of what may be being said on social media,” said Alan Gerard, a former director of the Analysis and Understanding Branch in the National Severe Storms Laboratory at NOAA.
Moskowitz still called for an investigation into Noem’s “‘cost-control’ policy.”
“As a result, this policy stripped FEMA of its ability to act in real time and delayed every major aspect of the response,” Moskowitz said in his letter.
During a congressional hearing on FEMA in November 2024, Moskowitz said the DHS was “too big” and recommended the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cut down the agency.
Both CNN and Moskowitz ignored FEMA’s long history of inefficient and inadequate disaster response, including most recently under former President Joe Biden
After Hurricane Milton devastated the South in September 2024, The Daily Wire exposed a FEMA supervisor who told workers to “avoid homes advertising Trump” as they canvassed Florida to identify residents who could qualify for federal aid.
The supervisor, Marn’i Washington, was fired after The Daily Wire broke the story.
In a later interview with Roland Martin, Washington said it was not an “isolated” incident.
“FEMA always preaches avoidance first and then de-escalation, so this is not isolated,” Washington said. “This is a colossal event of avoidance not just in the state of Florida, but you will find avoidance in the Carolinas.”
In March, FEMA fired three more employees as part of an agency investigation into Washington’s guidance.
The scandal was part of a pattern of FEMA mismanagement throughout both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, which occurred during Biden’s administration.
The Daily Wire visited Roan Mountain, a town in eastern Tennessee, and was told it took almost two weeks after the hurricane for a FEMA worker to deliver forms residents could use to apply for aid.
Amid hurricane disaster cleanup efforts, Biden Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas came under fire for saying FEMA “[did] not have the funds to make it through the [hurricane] season.”
The criticism came as FEMA was in the spotlight for spending hundreds of millions of dollars to house illegal immigrants.
As a result of those problems with the agency, President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January establishing a FEMA review council.
The council’s goal is to return power to state-level emergency managers.
In a Homeland Security Committee meeting, Noem said the council wants to empower states.
“We know that not every single state is prepared today to take over their emergency operations, that’s why the president has been clear that he wants to empower states, give them the opportunity to build out their response, to also sign [Memorandums of Understanding] with surrounding states, and other resources they can use to best serve their people,” Noem said. “He just doesn’t believe that FEMA has been successful in being there in a time of crisis for people.”
During her confirmation hearing in January, Noem said there would be no discrimination in disaster relief distribution.
“Under President Trump’s administration, disaster and emergency relief will not be handed out with political bias,” Noem said. “Every American will be responded to and treated equally.”
FEMA has also been criticized for spending money on illegal immigrants instead of disaster relief. Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency said it discovered millions of FEMA dollars spent on housing illegal immigrants in “luxury” New York City hotels in February.
“That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high end hotels for illegals!” Musk said on X. “A clawback demand will be made today to recoup those funds.”
As of March 2025, many North Carolina residents were still waiting for aid from FEMA, according to PBS.
All of these issues within the agency have been discovered over the past year. But FEMA’s problems go back decades.
“Many times you’ve seen over the years where the federal government has not shown up when they were expected to, and then even after a crisis was over, had committed to being there to help people restructure and to rebuild, and never followed through on it,” Noem said.
The secretary said FEMA is still processing decades-old claims.
“We still have claims outstanding in FEMA from Hurricane Katrina,” Noem said. “Wildfire claims from out West that are 10 years old, where people said, ‘We have this claim, this loss. FEMA committed to pay it and still has not followed through on it.’”
A bipartisan House committee investigated the federal government’s preparedness for and response to Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged New Orleans in 2005. Its findings, published in a report titled “A Failure of Initiative,” found that FEMA was neither trained nor prepared to deal with a crisis on the scale of Katrina.
The report cited disorganization, a lack of preparedness, and staffing shortages as reasons for FEMA’s poor response to the hurricane.
“For years emergency management professionals have been warning that FEMA’s preparedness has eroded,” the report said. “Many believe this erosion is a result of the separation of the preparedness function from FEMA, the drain of long-term professional staff along with their institutional knowledge and expertise, and the inadequate readiness of FEMA’s national emergency response teams.”
FEMA was also criticized over its handling of Hurricane Andrew in 1992, when delays in federal aid led a local emergency management director to demand, “Where the h*** is the cavalry on this one?”
Trump has supported moving the responsibility for disaster relief to the states, with the federal government funding a percentage of the response.
“I think, frankly, FEMA is not good,” Trump said in January during a visit to Hurricane Helene victims in North Carolina. “I think when you have a problem like this, I think you want to … use your state to fix it and not waste time.”
Leif Le Mahieu contributed to this report.
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