NC leaders say FEMA planned Helene disaster aid changes ‘unhelpful'

In late November, FEMA sent North Carolina officials a  memo  outlining a shift in how the agency would process existing applications for Tropical Storm Helene aid, some of which have been pending for months already. 

FEMA's new strategy, according to the document, was designed to "accelerate the recovery process" and "ensure accountability" for its sprawling Public Assistance program. It would change how the agency reviews and approves hundreds of millions in disaster recovery money.

Two weeks later, North Carolina's emergency management director  sent a response  that raised issues with almost every step of the plan. 

The state had "significant concerns" with FEMA's new process: it failed to address the most cumbersome aspects of Public Assistance, "lacked clarity" on dates and details, and imposed stricter deadlines on the state and local communities without similar guidelines for the agency itself.

"The proposed strategy seems to prioritize incomplete administrative measures over truly improving recovery efforts," wrote William Ray, the state's emergency management director.

The group representing county governments in Western North Carolina was even more explicit in its criticisms. In a  separate letter , the executive director of the N.C. Association of County Commissioners said the FEMA plan was "unhelpful" and was "tying one hand behind [our] backs." 

"At a minimum, this news is disappointing," wrote Kevin Leonard, in a letter to Ray that was also passed on to Rob Ashe, the acting administrator for FEMA's Southeast region. "At a maximum, this news has been received by some as if FEMA leadership at the regional and Washington, D.C. level is tone deaf."

And in another  letter to Ray , the director of the N.C. League of Municipalities said the new guidance would "require the most of the smallest municipalities in the region."

The correspondence represents the latest point of contention between FEMA and North Carolina leaders as they continue to work on Helene recovery, more than a year after the storm. 

The agency continues to send a steady trickle of aid to North Carolina through the Public Assistance program, now totaling over $1 billion for the storm. But state and local officials alike have repeatedly expressed frustration with new bureaucratic obstacles in FEMA's process, which have kept governments on uncertain ground and forced delays in other grant programs.

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As of this week, FEMA has "not implemented many of those policies" outlined in the memo, an emergency management staffer told Gov. Josh Stein's advisory committee for Western North Carolina on Dec. 15. 

FEMA, asked for comment on the letters, referred NC Newsline to its latest  news release  that touts more than $1 billion in total Public Assistance grants for Helene recovery.

"These funds are delivered in accordance with federal requirements to ensure accountability and that eligible costs are reimbursed as quickly as possible," an unnamed spokesperson said in an email.

Changes to FEMA aid focus on small projects

FEMA's changes to Public Assistance aimed to "reduce the number of open … projects" and "reduce the timeline" for both current and future projects, according to the agency's memo.

That involved a four-step process that included pushing resources to "high-priority" projects, "streamlining" the process to get documents for a project and "expediting" the review of projects.

Over the next two months, the agency would focus particularly on projects that cost less than $100,000, reviewing applications that are already in the pipeline. That would notably exclude everything that requires the personal sign-off by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristin Noem ; FEMA rules require her to approve every payment over $100,000.

By the end of January, the agency will have approved an estimated $26.2 million for projects in the southeast region, according to the memo.

Absent from the plan, North Carolina officials noted, was anything that would speed up the biggest pending applications, including payments for debris cleanup. And it appeared that FEMA's new layers of approval, including personal signoff by Noem, would remain unchanged.

Ray, in his letter, called that process "inefficient and bureaucratic." He also called FEMA's "Defend the Spend" effort, a separate step led by DOGE, "administratively redundant." 

Leonard, with the association of county commissioners, pointed out that the goal of $26.2 million was less than "the outstanding debris requirements for just one (among several) of our hardest hit counties." 

It wasn't clear how FEMA workers would "prioritize" projects, Ray wrote, and the new steps to request documents clashed with a prior agreement with the state. 

The agency was putting new strict deadlines in place for applicants that would be a particular crunch for smaller towns and cities, wrote N.C. League of Municipalities director Rose Vaughn Williams.

"The new requirements outlined in the FEMA memo, implemented on short notice and requiring a fast turnaround, may be difficult for these communities to comply with," she wrote.

The memo does not, however, mention new deadlines for FEMA staff. That contrast contributed to a "trust deficit that has been building for several months" between local leaders and the agency, Leonard wrote.

"This continues a pattern that counties have consistently raised for months, including with Col. Ashe during his recent visits: the goalposts keep moving," Leonard wrote.

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Galen Bacharier covers North Carolina politics and government for NC Newsline.

NC Newsline is part of  States Newsroom , the nation's largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: FEMA planned disaster aid changes, North Carolina responds