Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem defended the federal government’s response to the deadly flood in Texas after a New York Times report revealed that a majority of phone calls to FEMA’s call center after the disaster went unanswered.
The Times reported that FEMA fired “hundreds of contractors at call centers” resulting in “nearly two-thirds” of calls to the agency’s disaster assistance line from flood survivors not being answered.
The report also noted that a new DHS policy requires Noem to personally approve expenses over $100,000 and that she did not renew the contracts of the call center contractors until nearly a week after the flood.
“Why did it take so long to extend those contracts?” NBC Meet the Press host Kristen Welker asked Noem on Sunday, according to a clip highlighted by Mediaite.
Noem dismissed the report as “just false” adding “those contracts were in place.”
“It didn’t take five days?” Welker asked.
“No employees were off of work,” Noem replied. “Every one of them was answering calls, so false reporting, fake news, and it’s discouraging.”
“Just to be very clear, on July 7th, 15.9% of calls were answered,” Welker pressed. “I mean, does that concern you that only 15% of calls were answered? These are people in a desperate state.”
“These contracts were in place, and those people were in those call centers, and they were picking up the phone and answering these calls from these individuals,” Noem insisted.
“That report needs to be validified (sic),” she continued. “I’m not certain it’s accurate, and I’m not sure where it came from, and the individuals who are giving you information out of FEMA, I’d love to have them put their names behind it because the anonymous attacks to politicize the situation is completely wrong.”
The Times report cited sources and supporting documents while Noem presented no evidence disproving the report.
