July 9 (Reuters) - U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called on Wednesday for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be eliminated in its current form, even as the disaster-relief agency deployed specialists and supplies to Texas to help respond to devastating floods.
Noem's comments were a restatement of her thinking on FEMA's future but notable given FEMA's current critical role in central Texas, whereflash floods on July 4 have killed at least 119 people, with scores more still unaccounted for.
Speaking at a meeting of a government review council looking at ways to reform FEMA, Noem noted that the agency had provided resources, including search and recovery personnel, to aid state and local officials in Texas leading the response.
But Noem, who chairs the council, also took the opportunity to blast FEMA for what she called numerous past failures. She said the agency moves too slowly and ties up state and local officials in bureaucracy.
"Federal emergency management should be state and locally led, rather than how it has operated for decades," she said.
"It has been slow to respond at the federal level. It's even been slower to get the resources to Americans in crisis, and that is why this entire agency needs to be eliminated as it exists today, and remade into a responsive agency."
Defenders of FEMA have said President Donald Trump and his aides have sought to politicize a vital agency that helps states prepare for natural disasters like hurricanes and floods and clean up in the aftermath.
Michael Coen, FEMA chief of staff for former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, called Noem's remarks"disappointing" and noted that flood-stricken people in Texas were "still searching for loved ones with the support of the federal government."
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said Trump was "empowering" states "to invest in their own resilience before disaster strikes" and that policy discussions over what role the federal government should play in disasters would continue.
FATE OF FEMA UNCLEAR
The Texas floods, the first major deadly disaster since Trump took office in January vowing to gut or abolish FEMA, were a stark reminder of the extent to which states lean on the agency during a disaster. Trump and Noem have yet to explain exactly how FEMA should be remade and how its operations would differ from how it operates today.
In Kerr County, where the vast majority of the victims died, local officials have faced mounting questions about whether they could havedone more to warn residents as the floodwaters rose.
FEMA has deployed search and rescue teams from five states to Kerr County, sent an array of experts and supplies to augment the state's emergency headquarters in Austin and authorized activation of the Army Corps of Engineers, according to the agency's daily operations briefing.
Last month Trump said he would start"phasing out" FEMA after the current hurricane season, which lasts through November. He said states would receive less federal aid for disasters, with the White House controlling distribution of funds.
FEMA also plays an ongoing role in funding state emergency capabilities. In the previous fiscal year, Texas received nearly $20 million from FEMA to help pay for the emergency management operations now at the forefront of the flood response.
Trump has frequently said he wants states to have primary responsibility for responding to disasters, but his comments following the Texas floods have been more muted on that topic.
When asked by a reporter on Sunday whether he still planned to phase out FEMA, Trump responded that it was a topic"we can talk about later."
On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was similarly guarded, telling reporters that federal government disaster response was a"policy discussion that will continue."
Coen said he was encouraged by Trump's and Leavitt's remarks.
"They both seem to realize the importance of the moment," he said, adding he hoped the Texas disaster would serve as"an opportunity to maybe look at things differently."
