The Secretary of National Security, Kristi Noem, said on Sunday that President Donald Trump wants the Federal Emergency Management Agency “Refe” instead of dismantling completely.
“I think the president recognizes that FEMA should not exist in the way that has always been. It must be redistributed in a new way, and that is what we did during this response,” said Noem in an interview about “Meet The Press” by NBC News, referring to the federal government’s response to Texas floods.
Trump has previously criticized FEMA, which is part of the Department of National Security, and reflected on possibly “getting rid” of the agency, which manages emergency relief. Noem has also said that the administration would eliminate FEMA.
When asked in “Meet The Press” for the second time if Trump no longer wanted to end the agency, Noem reiterated that he believed that the president “wants it to be reminded to be a new agency on how to deploy and support the states.”
Following the floods of Texas, who have killed at least 129 people with 166 missing, the administration has moved away from its hard rhetoric addressed to the agency. Noem told reporters on Saturday that the federal response in Texas would be how Trump imagines “how FEMA would look in the future.”
It is far from how the president has previously attacked the agency. A few days after his second term, he said: “FEMA has really disappointed us, disappoints the country.” That same day, Trump signed an order that directed a “large -scale review” of FEMA.
Noem also recognized the NBC News and other media reports that the secretary requires that she personally sign in all agencies that spend more than $ 100,000.
“The firm of $ 100,000 is for each contract that passes through the National Security Department,” said Noem.
“It is a responsibility for the contracts that advance,” Noem added. “But there was no break in the contracts. Those contracts were approved as soon as they were in front of me, and Fema knew that they were completely to deploy them at the moment when local officials requested the request.”
Following mortal floods, some Democrats have criticized the administration’s response, with Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Going so far as to say that Noem should give up.
Noem responded to Warren on Sunday, deactivating the comment with a smile.
“I don’t care what I think,” said Noem, and added that there was “no” chances of renouncing.
Governor Andy Beshear, D-K. He pointed out previously mortal floods in Kentucky, saying: “We asked all the questions later. We didn’t sink from anything.”
“What I hope is happening is that people accept the questions because the questions do not have to be a political football and should not be,” Beshear said. “It’s’ How do we do better? How do we save more lives? How do we get a better weather forecast? Do we have enough people in the National Meteorological Service? All these things are legitimate.”
Noem calls ‘Alcatraz’ ‘Safe facilities’, no ‘Cellillas’
Noem on Sunday responded to criticism of what the administration calls “Aligator Alcatraz”, an immigrant detention center in Florida. Some Democrats have criticized the conditions of the center, with the representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., Calling them “really frightening.”
Noem argued that the standards in federal detention centers “are extremely high.” The “Aligator Alcatraz” installation is administered by the State, which Noem recognized.
Wasserman Schultz, who visited the installation with other Democrats from Florida, said the detainees were “essentially packed in cages” that contained more than 30 people each.
“Humans from wall to wall,” said Wasserman Schultz on Saturday.
Noem said that “I would not call them cells in prison,” and added: “They would be called an installation in which they are retained and that they are safe facilities, but that they remain at the highest levels of what the federal government requires for detention facilities.”
The secretary said the administration is looking to establish additional detention centers, and encouraged people to “self -support.”
