Some current and former staff at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) are celebrating Thursday’s firing of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who they say has made the United States more dangerous by micromanaging and shrinking the agency.
Since her confirmation to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last January, Noem’s tenure has been criticized for degrading Fema – the country’s main agency for disaster management and recovery – and for repeatedly expressing support for eliminating the agency. Noem said reform was necessary to end bloat and inefficiency.
“Kristi Noem failed as DHS leader,” said Michael Coen, former Fema chief of staff in the Obama and Biden administrations. “His micromanagement of Fema eroded Fema’s capacity and withheld critical funds from states and communities across the country.”
Noem’s dismissal came after her controversial testimony in a pair of Senate committee hearings, where she faced harsh criticism from Democratic and Republican lawmakers. She is the first Cabinet official fired by Donald Trump during his second presidential term.
“Am I relieved that he’s gone? Yes,” a former Fema official, who requested anonymity, told The Guardian. “You would be hard-pressed to find anyone at Fema who isn’t on that spectrum from relief to celebration.”
Fema did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In her year in Trump’s Cabinet, Noem drew ire for insisting on personally controlling staffing and spending at Fema, which reports to DHS.
“She was a uniquely destructive force and we will feel the extent of her incompetence for years,” the longtime official said. “You could say he took the only part of DHS designed to help American communities and sacrificed it on the altar of ideology.”
Amid deadly flooding in Texas over the summer, for example, Fema officials were reportedly unable to pre-position rescue teams or respond to emergency calls due to a requirement that Noem personally approve all agency expenses over $100,000. Noem said the policy drove “accountability” and that she approved all spending quickly.
“All staff watched in horror as urban search and rescue resources were delayed and call center contracts expired, knowing that these decisions affect whether people can get help in a timely manner and, in some cases, whether people live or die,” said a second Fema manager who also requested anonymity.
As DHS secretary, Noem also sought to eliminate thousands of Fema employees. Under his leadership, the agency also postponed billions in disaster reimbursements, with the New York Times reporting that the agency’s reimbursement backlog reached a staggering $17 billion last month. And last year, he said he supported the idea of “getting rid of Fema,” transferring responsibility for disaster recovery to the states.
“The bureaucracy she invented, coupled with her inability and unwillingness to understand the agency, its mission and its workforce, has left her in her worst position since before 2005,” the first anonymous longtime official said. “We, as a nation, are in a more dangerous place because of his mandate.”
Trump was reportedly frustrated with Noem’s leadership, but on Thursday he publicly defended her, praised her performance and reassigned her to a different role.
“The current Secretary, Kristi Noem, who has served us well and has had numerous spectacular results (especially on the Border!), will become Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas,” he wrote on social media.
Fema staff raised concerns about Noem’s leadership in an open letter in August, warning that the agency’s sweeping overhaul would risk a disaster on the scale of 2005’s devastating Hurricane Katrina. Shortly after, officials placed some of the letter’s signers on leave.
“The Fema workers are the best of us and care deeply about their country and their neighbors,” said Colette Delawalla, executive director of the advocacy group Stand Up For Science, which coordinated the August letter. “When there are disasters, they are the first on the ground, and Noem showed such blatant disregard for that dedication to the public in such an egregious way, and such blatant disregard for human life.”
As he fired Noem, Trump announced his successor: Markwayne Mullin, a Republican senator from Oklahoma.
“With Noem’s departure, there is an opportunity to stabilize FEMA and strengthen emergency management across all states, tribes and territories in the United States,” Coen said.
The first anonymous longtime Fema official said he hopes that, if confirmed, Mullin “will bring some level of accountability and transparency” to Fema.
“I’m not going to hold my breath,” he said, “but we’ll see.”
News of Noem’s firing spread quickly through the Fema office Thursday afternoon, Fema’s second manager said, as “people gathered around and high-fived.” They added that while “Noem’s firing is great,” they expect Mullin’s tenure “may not be much better.”
The damage Noem caused at Fema will be difficult to repair, the person said. It has left staff “tired, demoralized, angry, maybe a little resentful,” the manager said. And under his leadership, the agency damaged relationships with managers of state and local agencies that take “years to build” and lost experts with decades of experience, they said.
“I don’t know how to solve or overcome that,” said the manager. “We probably won’t know the extent of the damage she caused or how long it will take to undo it for years.”
Craig Fugate, who led Fema from 2009 to 2017, wondered whether controls on the agency’s spending would change under a new DHS chief.
“With the change in leadership at DHS, what else will change?” asked.
Asked for a general reaction to Noem’s ouster, he said, “Change is good.”
