‘She Has No Idea What She’s Doing’: Democrat Slams Noem Over Emergency Management

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) ripped into Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over her handling of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Noem is under fire over FEMA’s response to the devastating floods in central Texas last week that killed more than 120 people. On Wednesday, CNN reported that FEMA’s response was hobbled by a new policy that Noem instituted, whereby she must personally sign off on contracts and grants of more than $100,000.

“But even as Texas rescue crews raced to save lives, FEMA officials realized they needed Noem’s approval before sending those additional assets,” CNN said. “Noem didn’t authorize FEMA’s deployment of Urban Search and Rescue teams until Monday, more than 72 hours after the flooding began, multiple sources told CNN.”

Moskowitz joined Thursday’s edition of The Weeknight on MSNBC, where he unloaded on the DHS secretary. The lawmaker said Noem runs the risk of becoming “the next Michael Brown,” a reference to the FEMA director during Hurricane Katrina. A George W. Bush appointee, Brown had no emergency management experience before becoming director.

“Do you know, right now the regional administrator position in Florida is vacant?” asked Moskowitz, a former Florida emergency management director. “We don’t have a regional administrator in Region 4. It’s vacant. You’ve got regional offices that are 20, 30% empty because they were forced to leave.”

The Democrat went on to accuse Noem of being ignorant and incompetent.

“And so she has no idea what she’s doing,” he added. “The best thing that she can do now is sponsor my bill, get FEMA out of Homeland, get it away from her Ss that we can start reforming and rebuilding the agency. I mean, this is an agency that’s literally responsible for the contingency plans for government, God forbid we had a major disaster, a war, some sort of unbelievable event. And she’s breaking it to the point where it can’t function.”

Watch above via CNN.