Trump and Noem Obstructed Life-Saving Search-and-Rescue Efforts After Tornadoes 

Washington, DC – Despite being fired from her role as Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem’s failed leadership is still obstructing disaster response and putting lives at risk. While tornadoes and deadly storms hit Midwestern states this weekend, emergency management workers did not have critical tornado-tracking technology needed for search-and-rescue operations, because the contract was stuck on Noem’s desk and had never been approved. This is not the first time Noem’s red tape has blocked life-saving disaster response efforts—during the deadly Texas floods last summer, Noem delayed search-and-rescue efforts by 72 hours.   

Climate Power Senior Advisor Mia Logan issued the following statement: “Trump wants to gut FEMA, and before she was fired, Kristi Noem enacted Trump’s dangerous agenda, which is still putting communities at risk. Trump and Noem have wreaked havoc at FEMA, making it almost impossible for state and local officials to do their jobs of protecting and rescuing people during disasters. When a deadly tornado strikes a community, people can’t afford to wait for endless bureaucratic red tape to be resolved, they need immediate rescue and relief.”  

Trump and Noem’s gutting of our disaster response capabilities is putting communities at risk: 

• Before being fired, Kristi Noem did not approve contracts for critical tornado-tracking technology, hindering life-saving search-and-rescue efforts during tornadoes this weekend.
• Republican lawmakers are holding FEMA funding hostage because of their refusal to negotiate on ICE. FEMA is operating on a skeleton budget, because Senate Republicans refused to pass spending bills that would fund the agency while ICE reforms are negotiated.
• Trump has cut key FEMA staff, delaying the distribution of critical disaster funding. In 2025, Trump’s Department of Homeland Security drafted plans to cut FEMA’s workforce by more than 50%, resulting in the loss of more than 11,500 jobs.
• Under Trump, pending FEMA disaster applications are sitting longer on average than at any other point in the previous 37 years.
• Last week, Trump canceled all FEMA emergency manager trainings, except for those related to the FIFA World Cup — leaving communities more vulnerable to extreme weather. 

• Trump stopped approving new allocations from FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation and Grant Program, becoming the first president in at least three decades to deny governors’ requests for funding that’s meant to protect people and property.

• Trump canceled FEMA’s $1 billion Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program and called for an immediate return of awarded funds, threatening hundreds of resiliency projects in communities nationwide.

• Noem personally held up billions of dollars in critical disaster relief funding with her requirement for her personal approval on all FEMA expenses exceeding $100,000, creating a $17 billion bottleneck.
• 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.
• The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that Trump and Noem’s FEMA cuts could “exacerbate existing challenges and impact the federal government’s readiness to respond to future disasters.”