Congresswoman Deborah Ross of North Carolina accused Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem of deliberately withholding disaster relief funds and spending hundreds of millions on self-promotional contracts instead, and then of lying about her conduct.
Appearing on MS NOW, Ross alleged that approximately $80 million in previously appropriated relief funds were mysteriously released immediately after Senator Thom Tillis publicly criticized Noem's department for failing to disburse the money during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
"The timing of the release of funding generally coincides with a congressional hearing," Ross stated, directly contradicting FEMA's claim that the release timing was unrelated to the oversight pressure. "She is just lying."
Ross said Western North Carolina has endured two winters without sufficient disaster recovery funding despite Congress appropriating the money during the Biden administration. Meanwhile, she noted that Noem approved hundreds of millions in contracts for private jets and public relations for her department.
"We shouldn't have to have a U.S. senator come to you directly to get you to do your job," Ross said, characterizing the pattern as wasteful and potentially corrupt.
The congresswoman also addressed the ongoing partial government shutdown affecting DHS, revealing Democrats have proposed two paths forward: implementing guardrails on ICE and CBP operations to prevent constitutional violations, and separating those provisions from FEMA and cybersecurity funding. Republicans, she said, remain resistant to reining in the department or Trump.