1,000s Of FEMA Funding Requests Wait For ICE Barbie's Signature; Post-Helene, NC's Small, Rural Towns Hurt Most By Delay

EDIT

The Department of Homeland Security is holding up more than $100 million in preapproved funds intended to help hurricane-battered North Carolina clean up storm damage and fix infrastructure still in disrepair almost a year after Helene hit the region, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post and officials familiar with the process.

On July 22, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein sent a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi L. Noem urging her to rapidly release disaster recovery funds that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had already approved, which total about $115 million in public assistance grants. The state “faces nearly $60-billion in storm related damages,” the governor said, and while the federal government has already provided “considerable financial support … unfortunately much more help is needed to rebuild western North Carolina.”

EDIT

In mid-June, Noem instituted a restrictive budget process that requires her approval for every expense over $100,000. For an agency such as FEMA, which can spend millions in a matter of minutes, the sign-off procedure has crippled most of its operations, particularly disaster response. The expense approval requirement has been so onerous that FEMA had to pull together a new team of about 20 employees to try to fast-track the thousands of spending requests that had piled up on Noem’s desk, according to multiple agency officials, who like many spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity because of fear of professional retaliation.

The delay in receiving this funding, Stein said, has been hurting small, more rural towns that spent millions in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene — essentially keeping them in limbo, unsure of whether they’ll be paid back, or what additional work they can afford to do given their budgets. During and after disasters, FEMA is supposed to reimburse local governments for emergency costs they had to initially cover through public assistance grants. “Cash-strapped local governments in western North Carolina need this money as soon as possible to keep essential services going, whether that is continuing recovery operations, paying first responders and teachers, or picking up trash,” Stein told DHS in his letter last month.

EDIT

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/08/08/dhs-fema-north-carolina-helene-recovery-funds/