Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has doubled down on her past calls to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) — but also says it should be “remade” as the agency responds to floods in Texas.
Noem said that FEMA has been “slower to get the resources to Americans in crisis, and that is why this entire agency needs to be eliminated as it exists today and remade into a responsive agency.”
It’s not entirely clear what eliminating and then recreating the agency entails, but the administration has frequently said it wants the states to play a larger role in responding to disasters. Noem also doubled down on that idea on Wednesday, appearing by video at a meeting of the FEMA Review Council.
“What President Trump has empowered us to do is to let these states and local emergency management officials run and make decisions that best respond to their communities, and we be a support that comes in and comes alongside them when they need us,” she said.
Noem and Trump have repeatedly suggested that they want to eliminate FEMA, however, Trump also recently said changes would wait until after hurricane season.
While Noem also originally said in March that she wanted to “eliminate FEMA,” she later said she wants to eliminate the agency “as it exists today.”
Her latest comments come as FEMA is responding to major flooding in Texas that has killed more than 100 people.
