ICYMI: Tillis Blasts Noem for Her Disastrous Leadership at DHS

Washington, DC – During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) blasted Secretary Kristi Noem for her disastrous leadership at the Department of Homeland Security and accused her of violating the law knowingly or unknowingly by restricting and diverting FEMA resources from the agency’s mission. Noem has consistently mismanaged FEMA and fumbled the agency’s response to major disasters, leaving communities vulnerable and putting lives at risk. 

During the hearing, Noem made a lot of false claims — and if Republican Senators aren’t even buying it, neither should you. Pending disaster applications for FEMA are sitting longer on average than at any other period during the previous 37 years, and Noem personally held up life-saving search-and-rescue efforts for 72 hours following the Texas flooding.  

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s disastrous leadership has delayed critical disaster relief and put lives at risk:

• As of January 2026, Noem’s requirement for her personal approval on all FEMA expenses exceeding $100,000 had created a $17 billion bottleneck, causing months-long delays in delivering federal disaster funds to states. 

• Noem’s mismanagement has caused aid delays in communities across the country – from Missouri, Texas, New Mexico, Alabama, Arkansas, to even North Carolina, where Hurricane Helene recovery continues. 
• As of early February 2026, pending disaster applications for FEMA were sitting longer on average than at any other period during the previous 37 years.
• Parts of FEMA’s response to the deadly July 2025 Texas flooding were delayed by over 72 hours due to Noem’s requirement that she sign off on contracts over $100,000.
• In the aftermath of the Texas flooding, FEMA missed nearly two-thirds of the calls to the disaster assistance line because the call center contractors had been fired, and it took Noem five days to renew the contracts.
• States were waiting on more than $1.3 billion in FEMA mitigation grants that had not been approved for declared disasters since March 2025. 

• Cuts at FEMA indefinitely blocked nearly $10 billion in FEMA disaster aid for nonprofits working to rebuild and rehouse after climate disasters. 

• Republicans have gutted FEMA under Noem’s leadership. In 2026, the DHS terminated nearly 65 staffers from FEMA’s Cadre of On-Call Response and Recovery (CORE) Teams, which partner directly with state and local officials to support ongoing response and post-disaster recovery. 

• In 2025, DHS drafted plans to cut FEMA’s workforce by more than 50%, resulting in the loss of more than 11,500 jobs.
• Noem and DHS leadership redirected over $600 million from FEMA to build migrant detention centers and forcibly reassigned dozens of key FEMA staff to work for ICE on deportations, putting communities at further risk from extreme weather.

• Under Noem, FEMA’s $1 billion Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program was canceled, threatening hundreds of resiliency projects in communities nationwide.