North Carolina’s Republican senators are blocking quick confirmation of President Donald Trump’s Homeland Security nominees as part of an effort to extract both information and funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Sen. Thom Tillis told POLITICO’s E&E News on Wednesday that he has joined Sen. Ted Budd in placing holds on the administration’s picks for Department of Homeland Security, which houses FEMA, as the duo seeks more federal support for western North Carolina. The area was ravaged by Hurricane Helene last year.
The senators are hoping to use their holds as leverage to pressure the administration to provide answers about its slow-walking of FEMA disaster funding. They also want FEMA to clarify what states are supposed to do to receive federal dollars after disasters.
“I know that we’re going through a transformation at Homeland Security and in FEMA, but right now, we’re behind the eight ball on past storms, and we need to get their attention and cut through the red tape, get it done,” said Tillis, who is not running for reelection.
While FEMA has provided several billion dollars in reimbursements to western North Carolina since Hurricane Helene, the Trump administration has not provided the level of funding that state leaders say is needed to help rebuild destroyed communities.
In recent months, FEMA has delayed billions of dollars in disbursements in order to keep its disaster relief fund from running dry during the ongoing government shutdown, leaving numerous state requests for reimbursement unfulfilled.
Additionally, Budd and other senators have criticized DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s insistence on personally approving all project expenditures exceeding $100,000, which they say has resulted in bureaucratic holdups.
“I’m looking for clarity,” said Budd. “Because while we may be able to clear one tranche of funds out, we don’t want to have to go through a convoluted process or have the goalposts moved for the next tranche.”
Budd added, “I’d like a clear process so that we can get the money flowing from DHS, FEMA, to western North Carolina so that we can make them whole.”
In a request for federal funding last month, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, asked for a new appropriation from Congress of $13.5 billion — in addition to funding Congress has already appropriated for Helene recovery.
Stein said his state “has yet to receive billions of dollars that Congress worked together on a bipartisan basis to appropriate last December.”
A DHS spokesperson said in a statement that Hurricane Helene created “one of the largest and most complex debris removal missions in history.” The spokesperson said that, in the past 200 days, FEMA has provided North Carolina more than $510 million in public assistance grants, as well as an additional $2 billion for debris removal. More than 160,000 families affected by Helene have received a total of $515.6 million in direct assistance, according to the spokesperson.
The holds from Budd and Tillis are keeping DHS from filling three key leadership positions as the agency ramps up its immigration and domestic security efforts under the Trump administration.
The three stalled picks are James Percival for DHS general counsel, Sean Plankey for director of DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Pedro Allende for DHS undersecretary for science and technology.
Holds prevent the nominees from being confirmed by unanimous consent. But they do not have the impact they once did, in part because Democrats are opposing many of Trump’s nominees and have not allowed any to be confirmed by unanimous consent.
Still, the holds have prevented leaders from including the picks in broad nominee packages that have allowed dozens of nominees to be confirmed en masse under new Senate rules.
Previous holds from Tillis
Earlier this year, Tillis was part of a small group of Republican senators who temporarily placed formal holds on three Treasury Department nominees in response to Treasury guidance on the phase-out of renewable energy tax credits.
He has bucked the Trump administration on numerous instances, including by voting against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act due to concerns about health care cuts.
In a press release last month announcing about $12 million in new reimbursements for North Carolina, FEMA snubbed the senior senator, thanking “allies in Washington like Senator Ted Budd” without mentioning Tillis.
“The American people deserve a government that fights for their survival and prosperity, not one that kneels to bureaucratic elites,” Noem said in a statement included in the release. “Under President Trump’s leadership, DHS is restoring our nation’s strength, securing our communities, and ensuring no American is left behind.”
Congress has been working on bipartisan legislation that would reform FEMA. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee advanced the “Fixing Emergency Management for Americans (FEMA) Act,” H.R. 4669, on a 57-3 vote in early September. The bill would make FEMA a Cabinet-level agency, among other changes.
A group of nearly two dozen county leaders from across the country flew into Washington this week to urge lawmakers to advance the bill.
