Trump wants to ‘remake’ Fema, not eliminate it, Kristi Noem says | Trump administration

Internal Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement on Sunday that Donald Trump wanted to do it to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) completely instead of Eradik.

In a new interview with NBC on Sunday, Noem advocated the reaction of the Trump administration to the floods of Texas who killed at least 120 people: “I think the President Acknowledges that the President Fema should not exist as always.

Noem added: “I think he wants it to be rebuilt, so he’s a new agency about how he distributes and supports the states.”

His comments follow a widespread critique of Trump administration’s handling Texas floods reports Thousands of calls from Taskin victims were left unanswered by FEMA’s call centers due to enlarged contracts.

At the beginning of this week, the New York Times reported That FEMA did not respond to two -thirds of the calls made to the disaster help line. Outlet also reported that Noem, who has personally signed a new policy in contracts over $ 100,000, did not renew the contracts until the end of the floods.

Noem accepted the reports as “fake news ::“ This report needs to be verified. I’m not sure that it is true and I’m not sure where it comes from, and individuals who give you information from Fema, I want them to put their names behind because the anonymous attacks to politicize the situation are completely wrong. ”

Noem continued to accept the policy of signing personally in more than $ 100,000 in contracts: “Not extra bureaucracy, it makes sure that everything has reached my level and is immediately answered.”

He also praised FEMA’s reaction to Texas floods as the “best response ::“ This was the best response from FEMA, it was the best response from the federal government for many years and it is definitely better than Joe Biden. ”

Although Noem’s defense of the agency and the Trump administration deals with the crisis, many of them criticized Fema for resigning and retirement of about 2,000 resignations since the opening of Trump.

Speaking with Guardian, Fema’s former Chief of General Staff Michael Coen said: im I am worried that the fema will be disadvantageous because they do not have resources to respond to disasters that we know that may be two or three simultaneous disasters.

“FEMA has been eroded by President Trump since its becoming president. The staff has been separated.

The agency, which has been organized by Trump Routine in 1979 by Trump Routine, threatened to distribute the states of the states to deal with great disasters. In June, Trump said that after the hurricane season, he planned to start FEMA “gradually ve and that states would receive federal help to respond to natural disasters.

“We’ll give less money, Tr Trump said.

Last month, noem in question He added that Fema should go as “basically as it exists” and that states should have more responsibility to deal with natural disasters.

However, since Trump took office in January, the first major natural disaster has changed since Mark Texas floods, the discourse of his administration to eliminate FEMA.

At the beginning of this week, after asking if he was still planning to gradually remove the agency, Trump in question It was a matter of “we can talk later”. Similarly, the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the federal government’s response to natural disasters was a “a policy debate to continue”.