The remarks followed testimony the previous day from Noem, in which she stated that “President Trump has been very clear since the beginning that he believes that FEMA and its response in many, many circumstances has failed the American people, and that FEMA, as it exists today, should be eliminated in empowering states to respond to disasters with federal government support.”
Hamilton was fired a day after testifying before the committee.
Months later, he publicly pushed back on the Trump Administration’s handling of the agency in an apparent response to a FEMA spokesperson defending the Administration’s moves by saying it had previously been “bogged down by red tape, inefficiency, and outdated processes that failed to get disaster dollars into survivors’ hands.”
“Stating that @fema is operating more efficiently, and cutting red tape is either: uninformed about managing disasters; misled by public officials; or lying to the American the public to prop up talking points,” Hamilton wrote on social media in August. “FEMA is saving money which is good due to the astronomical U.S. Debt from Congress. Despite this, FEMA staff are responding to entirely new forms of bureaucracy now that is lengthening wait times for claim recipients, and delaying the deployment of time sensitive resources.”