Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is under fire amid reports of a botched disaster response effort in Texas, one that the editorial board of the state’s biggest newspaper is comparing to the debacle that followed Hurricane Katrina.

“Heck of a job, Secretary Noem,” The Houston Chronicle’s editorial board wrote on Monday, riffing on former President George W. Bush’s notorious praise of then-Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director Michael Brown as New Orleans flooded.

The editors joined Democratic members of Congress — including Sens. Ruben Gallego (Ariz.), Chris Murphy (Md.) and Ed Markey (Mass), as well as Texas Reps. Greg Casar and Jasmine Crockett — in calling for investigations into Noem’s handling of FEMA, an agency both she and President Trump have previously talked about closing, amid reports of poor response times and local volunteers filling in for federal responders.

On Tuesday, Markey called for Noem’s resignation, describing her handling of the floods as “an absolute disgrace.”

In a video posted on X, Murphy said that FEMA had begun to look like “a PR agency for the Secretary of Homeland Security, not an actual disaster response agency.”

Rafael Lemaitre, FEMA director of public affairs under former President Obama, said Trump and Noem’s vision for FEMA — one where it exists mostly to back up state responses — is largely already reality.

The Trump administration, he said, "is in denial about the role of FEMA, the improvements that FEMA has made since Hurricane Katrina — not only in its........

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