Noem orders personal approval for all FEMA expenditures over $100,000, freezing Hurricane Helene relief disbursements

FEMA Administrator Kristi Noem issued an internal directive requiring her personal sign-off on all agency expenditures exceeding $100,000, a requirement that immediately stalled the disbursement of Hurricane Helene recovery funds to North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida communities. The directive, issued in mid-June 2025, applied to all FEMA spending including pre-approved disaster declarations and routine operational contracts. Congressional Democrats obtained internal FEMA communications showing the backlog had grown to hundreds of millions of dollars within weeks of the policy taking effect.