North Carolina recovery officials are cautiously hopeful that newly confirmed Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, will speed up the flow of federal disaster aid to the state.
The Senate confirmed Mullin Monday night in a 54-45 vote. He will be the second leader of DHS under President Trump. The department oversees agencies that include Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The Senate has been in disagreement over policies for ICE agents for more than a month. Until the differences are resolved, Congressional Democrats are refusing to fund DHS.
Even before the shutdown, the department had been slow to reimburse local governments in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene left behind $60 billion in damage.
At the root of those delays is a policy former- DHS Secretary Kristi Noem implemented that required Noem to sign off on any expenditures over $100,000
During the Senate confirmation hearing last week, Mullin called the policy “micromanaging” and said he would put an end to it.
Speaking about FEMA during that hearing, Mullin said the agency has “a great mission and I think people at FEMA want to do their job, but we can be more effective and be more direct and speed it up. Taking years to get reimbursed is not acceptable.”
Mullin also pledged to find someone to lead FEMA who has emergency management experience – something the agency has lacked under the current administration.
