Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended President Trump’s immigration policies and plans for deep cuts at her agency in her first appearance before lawmakers since being confirmed.
Noem, appearing before a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, was grilled by House Democrats over planned cuts for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
Trump’s skinny budget proposes $646 million in cuts to FEMA it argues fund “equity” in disaster responde and also proposes shuttering the disinformation offices and programs at CISA.
“The President has indicated he wants to eliminate FEMA as it exists today, and to have states have more control over their emergency management response. He wants to empower local governments and support them and how they respond to their people,” Noem said amid questioning from lawmakers.
But Democrats defended FEMA over what it called baseless attacks by the GOP.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the committee, said dismantling the agency would mean “the federal government is abdicating its commitment to the American people.” She also raised concerns about grant funding being withheld for political reasons and leaving people “stranded due to political discord.”
“With all due respect, where is the evidence of the failure of FEMA,” DeLauro said during an exchange with Noem.
“It would appear that the administration overall… they're looking at dismantling the federal government. The states will never have the amount of money, because the federal government isn't going to pass that money to the states to be able to deal with what happens."
Noem said the agency still has unpaid claims from Hurricane Katrina and other disasters stretching back eight years or more.
She also nodded to the case of a FEMA supervisor who told employees not to go to houses with Trump signs who was later fired, saying the agency was picking “winners and losers.” But DeLauro shot back that the instance was limited to one employee and was not FEMA policy.
Rep. Ed Case (D-Hawaii) called actions at FEMA “another example of mis-budgeting.”
“You first of all, collectively, have directed very incorrect and outright mean criticism at FEMA, which is just undeserved by FEMA. And it's time to put the political campaign behind us and acknowledge that FEMA is doing a good job,” he said.
“We don't need this and, further, we certainly need to fund them adequately.”
He also slammed 20 percent cuts to CISA.
“Your budget also ignores and even attacks other critical functions of DHS, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, which I think we would all agree is critical to direct national defense, but also civilian infrastructure, which is the most exposed right now,” he said.
Immigration policy will largely be handled through the House Judiciary Committee’s reconciliation bill, but under questioning from Republicans, Noem defended some $45 billion in the budget for border wall construction.
Noem said the wall won't just be steel structures but will also be buoys across rivers and concertina wire as well as additional cameras in places where fencing and other structures are not possible.
“So the diversity of what happens is incredibly important,” he said. “We're going to continue to move forward with putting up that infrastructure because it does slow down traffic. It sends a message.”
Noem also said that even with the change in leadership, the department has had some issues deporting people as swiftly as she would like to.
“There are some countries that are still refusing to take their own citizens, and I would reiterate that every single country has a responsibility to take their citizens back,” Noem said without specifying.
“Many of the countries, today, even as they are working with us, aren't taking their citizens home very quickly. They may limit us to one or two planes a week.”
Noem also came under fire from Democrats for an ad campaign thanking Trump for closing the border, with the contracts for producing the ads swiftly awarded to GOP firms associated with former Trump staffers.
“This is a $200 million ad campaign, taking the money from [Customs and Border Protection] and [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] to promote a political advantage. It's really kind of the height of arrogance,” DaLauro said.
"You're looking for more money from us to do that, but you're going to take a portion of the money that we have given you and you're going to spend it on political advertising," she added.
“I mean, that really is — in Yiddish, the word is chutzpah.”
Noem said the contracts were awarded following guidelines and defended the need for the messaging.
“President Trump was very clear from the very beginning that he recognized that the fake news in this country was not going to tell the truth of what the work had been done at the border to secure this country,” she said.
“And these ads aren't only playing in the United States. They're playing in other countries where we had the largest invasion coming into this country from.”
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