Date: 2025-08-20 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00028926
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
CHRONICALLY DYSFUNCTIONAL
Delays and dysfunction: How Trump’s FEMA overhaul failed Texas flood victims
CHRONICALLY DYSFUNCTIONAL
Delays and dysfunction: How Trump’s FEMA overhaul failed Texas flood victims
Image credit: Texas Army National Guard/1st Lt. Zachary West, public domain
Original article: https://www.nationofchange.org/2025/07/24/delays-and-dysfunction-how-trumps-fema-overhaul-failed-texas-flood-victims/
As deadly floods ravaged Texas, FEMA’s response was stalled by political interference, bureaucratic delays, and personal oversight from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem—leading to the resignation of a top official.
By Alexis Sterling ... Nation of Change
July 24, 2025
As floodwaters rose across Central Texas earlier this month, FEMA’s elite search and rescue teams stood down, awaiting clearance. The delay—more than 72 hours—was not due to lack of readiness or capacity. It was the result of a new internal policy that required Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s personal approval for any FEMA contract or grant exceeding $100,000. That holdup, combined with ongoing frustrations over top-down interference and eroded agency autonomy, ultimately led to the abrupt resignation of Ken Pagurek, the head of FEMA’s Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) unit.
Pagurek’s departure comes amid widespread criticism of the Trump administration’s handling of the disaster response. At least 135 people died during the Texas floods, including dozens of children. As calls for help flooded FEMA’s systems, the agency reportedly missed thousands due to staff shortages caused by contractor layoffs pushed through by Noem just after the disaster struck.
“This decision was not made lightly, and after much reflection and prayer, it is the right path for me at this time,” Pagurek wrote in his resignation letter, noting he would return to work for the Philadelphia Fire Department. While his official statement did not mention the Texas flooding, three sources familiar with his thinking told The New York Times that the delay was the tipping point after months of mounting frustration with the Trump administration’s efforts to micromanage and, in his view, dismantle FEMA’s ability to respond swiftly to disasters.
Pagurek had led the US&R unit for a year and served in the program for more than a decade. In past interviews, including one conducted at the scene of the Surfside condominium collapse in Florida, Pagurek’s deep commitment to his work was evident. “Our job is to do the best that we can as quickly as possible,” he said. “I love helping people. I love serving others.”
The US&R system is a federally funded but locally staffed emergency response network created by Congress in the 1990s. It includes 28 specialized teams stationed across the country and ready to deploy for disasters ranging from hurricanes and floods to building collapses. FEMA coordinates their mobilization when seconds count. But during the early days of the Texas floods, seconds turned into days.
FEMA’s internal operations were disrupted by a policy implemented by Noem requiring her sign-off for any contract or grant exceeding $100,000 before funds could be released. FEMA officials called that figure “pennies” in the context of large-scale disasters. As the floodwaters rose and communities became increasingly desperate, multiple FEMA deployment requests languished on Noem’s desk, unsigned.
“She took four days to approve the lifesaving measures,” one official said. During that time, Noem posted a photo poll to her Instagram, asking her followers to help select her official gubernatorial portrait. “Which one do you like for the official Governor’s portrait to hang in the South Dakota State Capitol?” she wrote, while emergency requests remained unattended.
While DHS eventually authorized other federal resources—such as U.S. Coast Guard and Border Patrol rescue teams—the absence of FEMA’s US&R teams was widely felt. By the time they arrived, a week had passed. Teams that specialize in large-area searches, water rescues, and locating human remains were deployed too late to help many victims.
DHS officials dismissed criticism of the delays. “It is laughable that a career public employee, who claims to serve the American people, would choose to resign over our refusal to hastily approve a six-figure deployment contract without basic financial oversight,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said. “We’re being responsible with taxpayer dollars, that’s our job. Attempting to spin a personal career decision into some big scandal is ridiculous.”
Pagurek is not alone in his concerns. More than a dozen current and former FEMA officials told CNN that they believe the agency has been stripped of its autonomy and that morale has plummeted under Trump’s second term. Several said that long-time leadership figures have resigned or been removed, with some labeling the situation a “brain drain” inside the agency.
President Donald Trump has brushed off criticism of the federal response, instead praising Texas officials and defending his administration’s plan to reduce FEMA’s national footprint. He reiterated his long-standing belief that disaster management should be left to the states. Texas, for its part, deployed over 2,100 people across 20 state agencies, according to Governor Greg Abbott’s office.
Still, FEMA’s absence was acutely felt during the crucial early window. Multiple internal memos obtained by CNN show that FEMA has now launched a new initiative—called the Disaster Funding Adjudication Task Force—intended to expedite “lifesaving” resources during declared emergencies. The memos define disaster-specific requests as those requiring approval “immediately or within hours to prevent delays in the delivery of financial or life-sustaining assistance.”
However, the process still routes all funding requests through acting FEMA Administrator David Richardson, who was installed by Noem after she fired his predecessor in May, and then to Noem for final sign-off. This structure has left FEMA officials doubtful that the changes will improve the agency’s response speed.
“DHS keeps talking about reducing hurdles but at every turn they’ve made it more difficult for the agency and the people left here to do our job,” one longtime FEMA official said. “It’s just a shotgun approach to guidance that we are constantly reacting to, and then trying to build internal process on the fly, to make sure we can answer the bell when it’s rung.”
The DHS response to the memos was equally dismissive. “Any bureaucrat with fingers to type and two brain cells to rub together can draft an internal memo suggesting changes to niche bureaucratic process,” a spokesman said.
While Pagurek declined media requests for comment, his resignation letter ended on a hopeful note. “I have been continually inspired by the unwavering dedication, unmatched courage, and deep-seated commitment we share for saving lives and bringing hope in the face of devastation,” he wrote. “The bonds formed in the heat of disaster are unlike any other. I will always hold close the camaraderie, shared purpose, and deep sense of family that define the US&R System.”
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
I lived in Texas ... Houston (Chanelview) and Beaumont ... in the late 1960s. I was working for a Canadian company based in Vancouver that specialised in the design and construction supervision of pulp and papre mills. I was involved with a new construction near Houston and a major expansion of a pulp and paper mill in Silsbee, near Beaumont in East Texas. H.A.Simons was ny employer and the main contractors for both projects wwas Brown and Root, at the time, one of the largest contractors in the USA with impressive high level connections.
It was interesting to get my first experience of working in the United States in Texas. My 'takeaway' at the time was that in many ways Texas was a very efficient economy because very little got in the way of the business agenda. More than 60 years later, I still like the idea of an efficient economy, but not the manner in which the US ecoomy has evolved in the past 45 years ... an evolution that has brought a lot of wealth to a few and left most of the population struggling more and more as time passes.
The purposeful degradation of organizations like FEMA as part of the Trump agenda is evil at its core ... something embraced in almost everything that Trump and his fellow travellers support.
While the USA is 'stuck' with Trump, the world less so. I get the impression that almost every country on planet earth ... with the exception of Russia, North Korea, and in a different way China ... are going to reorganise themselves so that they can progress successfully without involving the USA.
Canada, in particular has already reorganised itself to depend less on the USA, and especially to build stronger critical trade connections well beyond the USA. This will benefit Canada significantly and fundamentally change the role Canada has played in support of the USA for many decades. At its most severe, this realignment of trade with Canada can be very serious for several states in the USA that, for example, have imported most of their electric power from Canada for decades. Perhaps the biggest trade realignment for Canada relative to the USA is oil and gas which has mostly been exported to the world via the USA and ports in the Gulf of Mexico. New Canadian pipelines now make it possible for Canadian petroleum products to flow West to the Pacific and East to the Atlantic without involving the USA at all!
Trump is pompous and belligerent, but, unlike Prime Minister Mark Carney, not very competent and certainly not a great strategic operator.!
Peter Burgess