Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is coming under fire from all sides amid reports she has personally frozen more than $1 billion in FEMA disaster-prevention funds.
Noem, 54, is already fighting for her job after two U.S. citizens were shot dead by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, this month, sparking global outrage.
At the heart of the FEMA row is Noem’s new rule that every Homeland Security-funded project worth more than $100,000 must get her personal sign-off.
That policy, introduced last July, has “virtually frozen FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program,” Rep. Rick Larsen, the top Democrat on the House panel overseeing FEMA, told NOTUS. FEMA went from spending about $100 million a month on hazard-mitigation work to almost nothing, the outlet found.
Former FEMA chief of staff Michael Coen told NOTUS the failure to move the money is “reckless” and “a breach of duty,” warning that “lives will be lost during future disasters that could have been avoided.”
By Dec. 31, Noem’s office was sitting on roughly $1.3 billion in already-approved hazard-mitigation projects, the outlet reported, and only two states, North Carolina and Oklahoma, saw their projects approved since then. Hundreds of applications in nearly every state, as well as in U.S. territories and tribal nations, remain parked at her level.
One stalled plan would have buried power lines on Pajarito Mountain above Los Alamos, New Mexico, to cut wildfire risk near the Los Alamos National Laboratory. “We were approved last summer, and it’s been sitting on her desk since,” county utilities manager Philo Shelton told NOTUS.
Since Noem’s $100,000 rule kicked in, FEMA has approved large mitigation grants in only three states—Georgia, North Carolina, and Oklahoma—even though far more projects have cleared regional review, according to NOTUS.
In Georgia, grants included work in Rep. Buddy Carter’s coastal district. North Carolina and Oklahoma also saw projects unlocked after Republican lawmakers lobbied the administration.
New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich said Noem is “blocking projects that are critical to our national security and the safety of Americans.”
Carter conceded the process is “frustrating” but defended the idea of tight central control, saying Noem’s rule is “probably the best they can do.”
Georgia Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop told NOTUS he did not think Noem “exercises her authority in the most efficient and effective way” and suggested doubts about her qualifications went back to her confirmation.
DHS did not respond to NOTUS’ request for comment.
The FEMA chokehold comes as Noem faces a survival fight over DHS’s lethal immigration blitz in Minnesota. Earlier this month, ICE agent Jonathan Ross, 43, shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, an unarmed mother, during a chaotic stop in south Minneapolis.
Then on Jan. 24, VA ICU nurse Alex Pretti, 37, was gunned down by masked Border Patrol agents while filming another immigration operation in the city, piling more pressure on Trump and Noem.
Before she became notorious for her perceived screwups at DHS, Noem had already turned FEMA into a political headache.
She has talked about eliminating the agency and signed off on New Year’s Eve emails terminating roughly 50 members of FEMA’s Cadre of On-Call Response and Recovery, which provides surge staff during disasters.
Her $100,000 sign-off rule was also widely blamed by lawmakers and former officials for slowing emergency aid to flood-hit Texas communities, where at least 135 people died last summer.
The Daily Beast has contacted DHS for comment.
