Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noem said on Sunday that President Donald Trump wanted the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be “remodeled” rather than completely demolished.
“I think the President realizes that FEMA should not exist as always, and that’s what we did during this response,” NOEM said in an interview with NBC News on “Meet the Press” about the federal government’s response to floods in Texas.
Trump previously denounced FEMA, part of the Department of Homeland Security, and was thinking about the possibility of “removing” the agency administering emergency relief. Noem has previously said that the administration will eliminate FEMA.
Asked a second time on “Meet the Press,” Noem repeated, believing that the president “hopes it will be remused, as if it is a new agency in the way the state is deployed and supported.”
In the aftermath of the Texas flood that killed at least 129 people, the administration has stepped away from harsh rhetoric targeting government agencies as 166 people are still missing. Noem told reporters on Saturday that the federal response in Texas is a way for Trump to assume “what FEMA looks like in the future.”
It’s far from the president’s previous targets of agents. A few days after his second term, he said, “FEMA really disappointed us and disappointed our country.” On the same day, Trump signed an order directing a “full review” of FEMA.
Noem also acknowledged that reports from NBC News and other outlets require secretaries to personally sign off all agents over $100,000.
“The $100,000 sign-off is for all contracts that pass through the Department of Homeland Security,” Noem said.
“It’s accountability for the moving forward contract,” Noem added. “But there was no breakdown of the contracts. These contracts were approved as soon as they were in front of me, and I knew that FEMA would fully unfold the moment when local officials sought requests.”
In the aftermath of a fatal flood, some Democrats have criticized the administration’s response, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) saying Noem should resign.
Noem responded to Warren on Sunday, brushing off the comments with a laugh.
“I don’t care what she thinks,” Noem said.
D-KY. Governor Andy Besher later said “it’s important to learn from the floods” by “meeting the media.” He pointed to the previous fatal floods in Kentucky, saying, “We asked all the questions. We weren’t embarrassed by anything.”
“What I’m going to happen is that people accept the question because the question doesn’t have to be political football and shouldn’t be,” Besher said. “It’s like, ‘How can we do better? How can we save more lives? How can we get better weather forecasts? Are there enough people at the National Weather Service? Can we unfold faster than this time?” They are all justified. ”
Noem calls “Alligator Alcatraz” a safe facility, not a “prison cell.”
On Sunday, Noem responded to criticism of the administration, which he calls “Alligator Alcatraz,” a Florida immigration detention center. Some Democrats have criticised the Centre’s terms, with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz being d-fla.
Noem argued that the standards for federal detention centers were “very high.” The “Wannial Catraz” facilities are state-controlled and Gnome has approved it.
Wasserman Schultz, who visited the facility with other Florida Democrats, said the detainees were “essentially packed into cages,” each containing more than 30 people.
“Wall-to-wall man,” Wasserman Schultz said Saturday.
“I wouldn’t call them prisons,” Noem said, “I would call them facilities that are held and safe, but they are held to the highest level the federal government needs for detention facilities.”
The secretary said the administration was considering establishing additional detention centres, and she encouraged people to “self-abolize.”
