‘I’m relieved she’s gone’: Fema staffers celebrate ousting of Kristi Noem
Current and former Fema staff say the fired DHS secretary made the US more dangerous by overhauling the agency
Current and former Fema staff say the fired DHS secretary made the US more dangerous by overhauling the agency
Dharna Noor
Fri 6 Mar 2026 15.06 EST
Some current and former Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) staff are celebrating the Thursday firing of homeland security secretary Kristi Noem, who they say has made the US more dangerous by micromanaging and shrinking the agency.
Since her confirmation to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last January, Noem’s tenure was criticized for degrading Fema – the nation’s foremost agency for disaster management and recovery – and repeatedly stating her support for the elimination of the agency. Noem said the overhaul was necessary to end bloating and inefficiency.
“Kristi Noem failed as a leader of DHS,” said Michael Coen, a former Fema chief of staff in the Obama and Biden administrations. “Her micromanagement of Fema eroded Fema’s capability and withheld critical funding from states and communities across the country.”
Noem’s ouster followed her contentious testimony at a pair of Senate committee hearings, where she faced harsh criticism from Democratic and Republican lawmakers. She is the first cabinet-level official to be fired by Donald Trump during his second presidential term.
“Am I relieved she is gone? Yes,” one longtime Fema official, who requested anonymity, told the Guardian. “You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone in Fema who isn’t on that spectrum from relieved to celebratory.”
Fema did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In her year in Trump’s cabinet, Noem sparked ire for insisting on personally controlling staffing and spending at Fema, which is housed within DHS..
“She was such a singularly destructive force and we will be feeling the extent of her incompetence for years,” said the longtime official. “She took arguably the only part of DHS designed to help American communities and sacrificed it on the altar of ideology.”
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