They said requiring personal sign-off on emergency funding “creates dangerous delays.”
Senators Patty Murray of Washington and Gary Peters of Michigan recently sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, asking for information regarding the policy that requires her signature for any emergency expenses over $100,000. They
“This directive, as currently implemented, creates dangerous delays and undermines the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) effectiveness, placing lives at unnecessary risk,” the senators wrote.
The senators wrote this letter after someone from FEMA claimed that this policy created days of delays during the disastrous flooding in Texas last month. Senators Murray and Peters claim that $100,000 is an extremely low threshold for how extensive FEMA’s work can be.
Secretary Noem said that the report, made by an official who resigned from the agency, was false.
The DHS secretary said the reports were “from people who won’t put their name behind those claims. And those call centers were fully staffed and responsive. And this is the fastest, I believe, in years, maybe decades, that FEMA has been deployed to help individuals in this type of situation.”
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For discernment for Secretary Noem as she endeavors to ensure fiscal responsibility in DHS and FEMA.
- For Senators Murray and Peters as they seek to ensure disaster funding is processed quickly.
Sources: The Hill, The New Republic
