Washington– Minister of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullen On Wednesday, he rescinded a rule requiring Department of Homeland Security expenditures of more than $100,000 to be personally approved by his office, ending a widely criticized policy implemented by his predecessor, Kristi Noem, that critics said placed a special burden on the government. Federal Emergency Management Agency Work to help with disaster response and recovery.
This decision represents the first major action by the new Homeland Security leader. I swore last weekto change a policy implemented by Noem, who is headed by President Donald Trump Launched in March.
Mullen’s move is expected to ease a spending bottleneck that lawmakers and states have said has delayed disaster response and recovery funds, though those effects are unlikely to be widely felt until after the DHS shutdown, now in its 47th day, ends.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed that Mullen rescinded the rule on Wednesday, telling The Associated Press that the secretary “reevaluated contract operations to ensure that DHS is efficiently serving America’s taxpayers.” Mullen’s decision was first reported by CBS News.
The spokesman said that Mullen’s action will streamline the contracting process and allocate aid more efficiently.
The International Association of Emergency Managers praised Mullen’s decision. “We appreciate Secretary Mullen’s common-sense approach to this issue and look forward to working with him,” said Josh Morton, President, IAEM-USA.
Noem issued a directive last June requiring her to personally approve any DHS expenditures in excess of $100,000. Critics said the rule undermined FEMA in particular, an agency that routinely issues contracts and compensation above that amount in its work to prepare for and respond to natural and man-made disasters across the United States.
The policy created “an untenable situation for emergency managers,” Morton said, and created a bottleneck that also hindered mitigation and preparedness programs, “exposing Americans to an increased risk of disasters.”
A recent report by Democratic members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee found that the consent rule had delayed at least 1,000 FEMA contracts, awards or reimbursements by September.
This policy came under scrutiny after news reports linked it to understaffed call centers and Delays deployment of FEMA urban search and rescue teams to Texas during the deadly floods last July, and brought sharp rebukes from some state officials and lawmakers, especially Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, whose state is still recovering from the floods. The devastation caused by Hurricane Helen In 2024.
“I failed FEMA,” Tillis told Noem at a Senate hearing two days before she was fired.
About $2.2 billion in recovery and mitigation dollars were in the queue for DHS approval on Wednesday, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency data seen by the AP.
“It’s a great job, and I think the people at FEMA want to do their job,” Mullen told lawmakers at his confirmation hearing in March. Arouse cautious hope It will ease the turmoil the company has experienced under Noem’s leadership.
Mullen said he would keep the agency “adequately staffed” after it lost more than 2,400 employees last year, and said he is already considering candidates for a permanent FEMA director position, which the agency still lacks.
Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of eliminating FEMA, recently saying that the agency is “too expensive and doesn’t really get the job done.”
“We hope this is a step toward transparency and stability between FEMA and states,” said Michael Quinn, FEMA’s chief of staff during the Obama and Biden administrations.
DHS reviews other policies across the agency, Temporarily halt the purchase of new warehouses to hold migrants This week you review contracts signed under Noem.
Lifting the spending approval rule would not necessarily mean a rapid flow of FEMA reimbursements to states, tribes and territories, as the agency is still affected by the DHS fund impasse, now the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
While FEMA’s disaster response and disaster recovery activities are paid from the never-ending Disaster Relief Fund, those funds are running out, a FEMA official warned lawmakers at a House hearing last week, with about $3.6 billion remaining. The DHS appropriations bill would add just over $26 billion to the fund.
Republican lawmakers on Wednesday He indicated the possibility of reaching an agreement to end the closure in the coming days.
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An earlier version of this story misstated that the DHS shutdown was on its 46th day, not its 47th, and that the Senate hearing where Tillis rebuked Noem took place one day before her firing, not two days before.