The admin of the Federal Emergency Management Agency was fired one day after he had broken with the administration’s colleagues when he told lawmakers that he did not support the agency’s dismantling, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior Security confirmed.
Cameron Hamilton, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, was accompanied by the FEMA headquarters on Thursday, according to many sources familiar with the situation.
“At the discretion of (the Minister of Interior Security, Christie Nov) has the staff he prefers,” DHS spokesman Tricia McLaughlin told CNN, confirming that DHS employee David Richardson will take on Hamilton effectively. McLaughlin declined to explain why Hamilton was removed from office.
This move comes one day after Hamilton defended FEMA during the testimony before the Budget Loan Committee.
“As a senior President’s Disaster and Emergency President Advisor and the Secretary of Homeland Security, I do not believe that it is in the best interest in the US people abolishing the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” Hamilton told the Commission on Wednesday. “As I said this, I am not able to make decisions and influence the results of whether or not to determine it should be made. This is a conversation that must be conducted between the President of the United States and this governing body.”
For months, both Trump and November, whose Ministry of Homeland Security has been watching FEMA, have called on the agency to be “eliminated”. On Tuesday, November confirmed this position when she held questions from the same chamber committee.
“President Trump is very clear from the beginning that she believes that FEMA and its response in many, many circumstances have failed the American people and that FEMA, as it exists today, must be eliminated in the empowerment of countries to respond to disasters with the support of the federal government.” Nov told the committee.
Hamilton hit an extremely different tone in his testimony. He has repeatedly praised FEMA employees -calling them “one of the largest work forces in the entire federal government” -emphasizing that his goal is to shorten the bureaucratic bureaucracy and reorient the agency and its budget for its main mission to provide the survivors, only after the most disadvantaged nature
“The workforce (FEMA) is huge and incredible and they do a very great job, but there are also systems and processes that are completely antique and need to be improved.” said Hamilton. “FEMA is too often used by states and civil servants as a financial back for routine issues that should be frankly processing locally. This discrepancy encourages the culture of addiction, waste, ineffectiveness while slowing down the decisive assistance of Americans who are in real need.”
Trump and November have repeatedly criticized FEMA as guerrilla, ineffective and unnecessary. The administration claims that FEMA uses “awakened” ideologies for appropriate resources.
As CNN reported earlier, the Trump administration is considering raising the threshold to qualify for federal disaster care, which can drastically reduce the number of basic disaster declarations that the president approves. DHS senior officials also discussed the dismantling of FEMA in the coming months.
But Hamilton told the legislators that reforms taking place in FEMA should be made slowly and carefully.
“This will not be a radical transition in an instant,” said Hamilton. “This should happen in a step -by -step approach where we design countries and locals about building capacity and capacity.”
Early CNN reported that Hamilton had received a lie detector test just days after participating in a meeting with the best DHS employees to discuss FEMA’s future policy and how to potentially dismantle the agency. This closed -door meeting was reported by CNN and other media. At least a dozen other FEMA employees have also been polygraphic from DHS in recent weeks, mainly for alleged media leaks.
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