Mullin says FEMA should be ‘restructured’ and that he’ll end Noem’s controversial $100K expense reviews

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), President Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), says that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) should be “restructured, not eliminated” and that he would revoke current Secretary Kristi Noem’s controversial policy of personally reviewing major expenditures.

Mullin’s comments came during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. FEMA, which is under DHS, has been in the Trump administration’s crosshairs.

Last year, both President Trump and Noem had suggested that the agency should be eliminated before pivoting their rhetoric more towards reform.

Among Noem’s most contentious changes at the agency was her policy of personally reviewing expenses of more than $100,000, which led to billions in agency funding being held up.

Asked by Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) if he would commit to eliminating the review policy, Mullin said “absolutely.”

“That’s called micromanaging, and I don’t know if the secretary put that in or someone else did. I’m not a micromanager,” Mullin said.

Mullin, when asked by Kim, did not commit to ending staffing cuts at FEMA.

“Some of these agencies … not some, all of them got very bloated,” Mullin said.

Pressed about whether he thought there were still too many staffers, Mullin said, “I can’t answer that. When I get there, we’ll be adequately staffed to respond to our nation’s disasters.”

A review council set up by the administration to assess changes to FEMA was reportedly set to recommend cutting the agency’s staff in half in a report that was scheduled to come out last year but never did.

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