There is no "formalized final plan" for restructuring the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem said Wednesday during a House hearing about her department's budget request, reports the New York Times.
Noem in recent weeks has promised to limit FEMA and President Donald Trump last week fired the agency's acting administrator, Cameron Hamilton, after he told lawmakers he did not think it was in the public's interest to eliminate the agency.
Trump also appointed several new members to the FEMA Review Council, a bipartisan body responsible for overhauling and streamlining the nation's emergency management and disaster response systems.
Noem, who co-chairs the council, told House members Wednesday there is the potential for new members to be added and anticipates the priorities of the council will be "to evaluate FEMA as it stands today and how it can better be reformed and replaced to respond to people's needs in a time of crisis.
"Many times you've seen over the years where the federal government has not shown up when they were expected to and then even after a crisis was over it had committed to being there to help people restructure and to rebuild and never followed through on it, we still have claims outstanding in FEMA from Hurricane Katrina, wildfire claims from out West that are 10 years old … we saw political targeting that happened in North Carolina where individuals within FEMA decided who could get help and who didn't get help, so that needs to end and this needs some integrity to it and making sure the federal government is there for support, but the states are empowered to do the emergency responses very important to President Trump," she added.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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