Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday she supports getting rid of the Federal Emergency Management Agency the way it exists today.
Noem’s comments came after Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency, said earlier on Sunday that FEMA is “broken.” Musk was replying to a user on X who suggested FEMA should be shut down entirely.
CNN anchor Dana Bash asked Noem, whose responsibilities as DHS secretary include overseeing FEMA, whether President Donald Trump can and should shut FEMA down.
“He can and I believe that he will do that evaluation with his team,” Noem said. “And he’s talking about it, which I’m grateful for. He’ll work with Congress, though, to make sure that it’s done correctly and that we’re still there to help folks who have a terrible disaster or crisis in their life.”
She noted Trump has been “very clear that he still believes in the role of the federal government to come in and help people get back up on their feet — but there’s a lot of fraud and waste and abuse out there.”
Noem said she would recommend offering block grants to states and local officials in place of FEMA’s current work.
She said South Dakota saw 12 different natural disasters during her time as governor. “The local county emergency management directors, the mayors, the city councils, and the county commissioners — they made way better decisions than the people in Washington D.C.,” she said.
“I would say yes get rid of FEMA the way it exists today,” she said, when asked what she would say if Trump asked her what to do about FEMA. “We still need the resources and the funds and the finances to go to people that have these types of disasters like Hurricane Helene and the fires in California but you need to let the local officials make the decisions on how that is deployed so it can be deployed much quicker and we don’t need the bureaucracy that’s picking and choosing winners.”
FEMA came under fire last year after an employee ordered workers to avoid houses with Trump signs in Highland County, Florida, during hurricane relief efforts.
The employee, Marn’i Washington, was later fired from the agency. However, she alleged in media interviews that she was given the order to avoid the homes of Trump supporters by he supervisor because FEMA canvassers were repeatedly met with hostility by Trump-supporting homeowners. She noted FEMA policy advises employees to take preemptive action to avoid hostile interactions.
Whistleblowers also came forward with allegations that FEMA had mismanaged funds and left first responders waiting in hotels for deployment orders to assist Americans in North Carolina devastated by Hurricane Helene.
Noem said in the last five days Trump has closed 80 percent of the open FEMA cases in North Carolina. “It’s amazing when you have somebody who cares how [quick] the response can be,” she said.