Noem hits back at FEMA critics, reveals vision for disaster relief agency

FIRST ON FOX: Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem slammed a group of former and current Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees who wrote a letter criticizing the Trump administration’s handling of the agency as she outlined her vision for FEMA’s role in the U.S. 

More than 190 former and current FEMA employees joined an open letter on Monday “in response to the Trump administration’s dismantling cuts and devastating attacks on FEMA programs and missions.” On Wednesday morning, the agency’s current employees who signed on to the letter were placed on administrative leave.

“I am not surprised that some of the same bureaucrats who presided over decades of inefficiency are now objecting to reform; including many who worked under the Biden Administration to turn FEMA into the bureaucratic nightmare it is today,” DHS Secretary Noem told Fox News Digital on Thursday. “I refuse to accept that FEMA red tape should stand between an American citizen suffering and the aid they desperately need.”

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“That’s why I am working so hard to eliminate FEMA as it exists today, and streamline this bloated organization into a tool that actually benefits Americans in crisis,” Noem added.

President Donald Trump, who has been critical of the disaster agency since his presidential campaign, told reporters in June that FEMA “has not worked out well.”

“It’s extremely expensive and, again, when you have a tornado or a hurricane or you have a problem of any kind, in a state, that’s what you have governors for,” Trump added. “They’re supposed to fix those problems, and it’s much more local and they’ll develop a system, and it will be a great system.”

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The basis of the letter, which was published by nonprofit Stand Up for Science, focuses on Hurricane Katrina and relays concerns that unpreparedness played a large role in the aftermath that shook the gulf and devastated New Orleans, Louisiana. 

Signees argue that Noem and the agency’s leaders “hinder the swift execution of [FEMA’s] mission, and dismiss experienced staff whose institutional knowledge and relationships are vital to ensure effective emergency management.” 

Secretary Noem told Fox News Digital that these criticisms are remnants of the Biden Administration’s wasteful spending, and that the agency “has a history of failing Americans in real emergencies for decades.”

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“The Biden administration spent hundreds of millions of dollars resettling illegal aliens in our country on American taxpayers’ dime, while FEMA still hasn’t even finished payouts from Hurricane Katrina,” Noem explained to Fox. “We don’t want to just fix a broken system, we want to build something better.” 

“As our successes in Texas make clear, the Trump administration has created a deployable disaster force that cuts through the bureaucratic noise, and delivers real results in record time,” Noem added. 

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Despite the partisan back-and-forth, some Democrats have recognized the positive direction the disaster agency is heading under Noem and Trump’s leadership. 

Democrat Andy Beshear of Kentcucky told “At Our Table” podcast host Jaime Harrison earlier this month that “Trump’s FEMA on the ground has done a good job in Kentucky” and that the federal government’s handling of the agency is “actually a credit to [Trump’s] administration.”

While the immediate future of FEMA and how Congress may go about funding the agency remains unclear, Noem is optimistic that much of the wasteful spending that came from previous leadership will be put to rest.

“These [FEMA] career bureaucrats had Support Service contracts for everything they do, from finance to management support to staffing reviews,” a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) told Fox News Digital. “They hardly did anything themselves.”

“Instead, they hid their egregious misuse of taxpayer funds under the veneer of ’emergency management,’ the DOGE officed explained to Fox. “No wonder they have the time to write letters to the hill – they certainly weren’t spending their time working.”

Preston Mizell is a writer with Fox News Digital covering breaking news. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on X @MizellPreston