Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) ripped a quote from Donald Trump on Thursday as he shredded Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s handling of last week’s deadly Texas floods.
“They don’t know what the F they’re doing,” Moskowitz said in an interview with MSNBC, echoing Trump’s explicit comments on Israel and Iran breaking a ceasefire deal last month.
Noem’s Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, has faced intense criticism from Democrats as emergency officials have detailed an effort to cut spending that requires her to personally sign off on contracts or grants over $100,000 before those funds are released.
The new policy, sources told CNN, impeded efforts to save lives in Texas as Noem didn’t authorize FEMA’s deployment of its Urban Search and Rescue teams for more than 72 hours after flooding started in the Lone Star State.
At least 120 people have died due to the devastating floods and over 170 were still reported missing as of Thursday night.
“By the time those crews arrived, they were useless after 72 hours,” said Moskowitz, who has called for an investigation into reports on FEMA’s delayed response.
Moskowitz stressed that Noem has “no idea” what she’s doing in Texas and referred to the Trump administration canceling a FEMA program that looked to award states billions of dollars in disaster funds.
The congressman also pointed to the agency losing roughly 20% of its workforce and emphasized that its acting director, David Richardson, has “zero” emergency management experience.
Moskowitz, a former director of Florida’s emergency management division under Gov. Ron DeSantis, said FEMA would have “automatically moved those swift water rescue crews” if his state experienced such an emergency situation at the time.
“That did not happen here!” said the congressman, adding that it’s “questionable” whether decisions under Noem’s DHS leadership may have caused additional deaths amid the floods.
Moskowitz, who introduced a bill to remove FEMA from DHS earlier this year, said he doesn’t believe the West Wing knows just how “bad” FEMA currently is and isn’t aware of the “damage” Noem has caused to the agency.
“And they’re not going to find out until real time,” he warned.
“God forbid, we get a real big storm this summer. I’m worried that FEMA is not prepared and it’s all because of what the secretary has done.”