DHS head rescinds $100,000 approval rule to ease FEMA spending bottleneck

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin rescinded a DHS rule that required his office’s personal approval for certain DHS expenditures above $100,000, a DHS spokesperson said April 1 in an announcement first reported by CBS News. The move, DHS said, follows Mullin’s re-evaluation of DHS contract processes as he begins a tenure that started after he was sworn in last week.

The rescinded approval requirement is tied to a policy implemented by Mullin’s predecessor, Kristi Noem, that critics said placed additional burdens on FEMA. FEMA routinely issues contracts and reimbursements that can exceed the $100,000 threshold as it prepares for and responds to disasters across the United States, according to critics cited by the Associated Press.

DHS said Mullin rescinded the rule Wednesday and described the decision as a way to make DHS spending “serve[] the American taxpayer efficiently.” The spokesperson added that Mullin’s action is expected to streamline contracting and allocate aid more efficiently, with officials and stakeholders anticipating fewer administrative delays for disaster-related spending.

The Associated Press reported that the decision marked Mullin’s first major policy action as the new Homeland Security leader. Mullin had taken office following President Donald Trump’s firing of Noem in March, according to the report.

Emergency management officials welcomed the change. The International Association of Emergency Managers praised Mullin’s decision, with IAEM-USA President Josh Morton saying, “We appreciate Secretary Mullin’s common-sense approach to this matter, and we look forward to working with him.”

Critics had argued that Noem’s approval rule created “an untenable situation for emergency managers,” Morton told lawmakers and in commentary cited by the Associated Press. Morton said the policy hindered not only certain contract and reimbursement actions, but also mitigation and preparedness programs, which he said increased Americans’ risk from disasters.

A recently released report by Democratic members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee found that the approval rule had delayed at least 1,000 FEMA contracts, grants or disaster reimbursements by September, the Associated Press said. The policy also drew scrutiny after news reports tied it to unstaffed call centers and delays deploying FEMA Urban Search and Rescue teams to Texas during deadly floods last July.

Some lawmakers described the policy as undermining FEMA. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, whose state is still recovering from Hurricane Helene’s 2024 devastation, told Noem at a Senate hearing two days before she was fired: “You’ve failed at FEMA,” the Associated Press reported.

Data reviewed by the Associated Press from FEMA showed about $2.2 billion in recovery and mitigation dollars in DHS’s approval queue on Wednesday, the report said. Even with the approval process rescinded, the Associated Press reported that reimbursements to states, tribes and territories would not necessarily flow quickly because the wider DHS funding impasse tied to the shutdown remained in place.

FEMA disaster response and recovery payments are funded through a non-lapsing Disaster Relief Fund, which a FEMA official warned lawmakers last week had about $3.6 billion remaining, the Associated Press said. The report added that an accompanying DHS appropriations bill would add just over $26 billion to the fund, and it said Republican lawmakers signaled Wednesday that agreement to end the shutdown could be reached in coming days.

The Associated Press also reported that DHS is reviewing other Noem-era policies. It said DHS paused the purchase of new warehouses for immigration detention this week as it reviews contracts signed under Noem, and that officials said Mullin was considering nominees for a permanent FEMA administrator, a position that the agency still lacked.

The Associated Press report acknowledged an editorial correction: a previous version misstated that the DHS shutdown was in its 46th day rather than its 47th, and that the Senate hearing in which Tillis rebuked Noem took place one day before rather than two days before her firing.