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Secretary Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was already facing scrutiny as temperatures plunged and winter storms rolled across much of the United States at the end of January. The expansive winter storms came just after immigration officers ultimately under her command killed two people in Minnesota. The killings heightened public anger against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, both under Noem’s purview, as the agencies continued their spree of occupying Democrat-run cities.

The storms then left tens of thousands without power and claimed at least 100 lives from Texas to Tennessee and across much of the Southeast. Some communities are still waiting for power more than a week later.

Now, a growing chorus of experts, agency whistleblowers, and members of Congress say Noem has left the U.S. unprepared for disasters by gutting the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and impeding the dispersal of federal aid.

“It’s very clear that Secretary Kristi Noem is undermining FEMA’s capabilities and putting the public in harm’s way,” said Abby McIlraith, a FEMA disaster aid manager and whistleblower, in press call on February 4.

President Donald Trump announced vague plans to phase out the agency early on in his second term. His administration has hampered FEMA through budget cuts, and thousands of staffers have left or been fired as part of a wider gutting of federal agencies. However, as arctic winds and icy storms threatened to pummel half the country in January, The Washington Post reported that officials were forced to pause plans for terminating dozens of FEMA workers.

On January 27, The New York Times reported that Noem’s policy mandating that expenditures over $100,000 be approved by her office had held up $17 billion in federal aid for states recovering and rebuilding after recent disasters. Noem announced the release of $2.2 billion in disaster funds two days later, but members of Congress and FEMA employees say Noem’s delays have already caused harm, including in........

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