Noem demanding to sign off on all FEMA expenditures over $100K and staff says it's impacting emergency response
FEMA officials told CNN they were unable to pre-position Urban Search and Rescue crews from across the country to Texas, as flood waters dramatically rose to levels not seen in decades, destroying children's summer camps, homes, and putting hundreds of lives at risk.
That was because Noem enacted a new rule requiring any department contract or grant over $100,000 to be personally signed off by her before funds can be utilized, several current FEMA officials told NBC News.
'FEMA doesn't sneeze without spending that amount of money,' a former official anonymously told NBC News.
The rule, which is meant to cut back spending, could be a major problem for FEMA, which regularly accesses millions of dollars to assist in disaster response and recovery.
'We were operating under a clear set of guidance: lean forward, be prepared, anticipate what the state needs, and be ready to deliver it,' an unnamed longtime FEMA official told CNN.
'That is not as clear of an intent for us at the moment,' the official added.
The Independent has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
Noem eventually approved FEMA's request on Monday, nearly three days after the initial flooding occurred, sources told CNN.
FEMA officials also adopted a more streamlined process to send requests to Noem, creating a task force to speed up the process, two people familiar with the situation told NBC News.
Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson, told CNN that Noem did not need to authorize additional FEMA resources initially because the department used other search and rescue assets.
Noem approved the requested FEMA funding as time went on, and there was a need for it, McLaughlin said.
The department told NBC News it has taken an 'all hands on deck approach to respond to recovery efforts in Kerrville.'
But FEMA officials told the news outlet that they fear the newly implemented rule could have far more devastating consequences when disaster strikes a larger area, or multiple states.
In the area of central Texas where the flooding occurred, at least 120 people have died, including children, and more than 160 people are still missing.
DHS says that Noem's recent cost-approval change is meant to reduce federal overspending and 'empower' states to respond to disasters. The step appears aligned with President Donald Trump's larger goal of phasing out FEMA completely.
In June, Trump said he wants to 'wean off of FEMA' and 'bring it down to the state level.'
'A governor should be able to handle it, and frankly, if they can't handle it, the aftermath, then maybe they shouldn't be governor,' Trump said.
When confronted with the question over the weekend, Trump softened his stance but did not rule out his plan to axe FEMA.
FEMA is the lead federal agency tasked with responding to disasters and was established during the Carter administration. When a president declares a major disaster or emergency declaration, a state can access critical federal funding to assist in response and recovery.
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Reuters
42 minutes ago
- Reuters
Crypto exchanges rushed to list Trump's coin - leaving many losers and some big winners
NEW YORK, July 14 (Reuters) - Crypto exchange Coinbase assures users on its website that it puts any new digital coin through "rigorous" vetting before allowing it to trade. It's an at-times lengthy process meant to protect customers by examining the people connected to the project and the risk of market manipulation or other scams. With President Donald Trump's crypto token, $TRUMP, Coinbase made up its mind in just one day. The $TRUMP token, which launched three days before his inauguration in January, is a meme coin. Based on cultural fads or celebrities, these coins have no intrinsic value and – past experience has shown – are prone to large price swings that can leave investors with losses. A Reuters analysis of crypto market data and industry announcements found that, compared to other recent large meme coins, the biggest crypto exchanges took Trump's to market with unusual speed, despite stating they vet risky coins thoroughly to protect small investors. Some also approved the listing in spite of the high share of coins concentrated in the hands of Trump and his partners, which would normally represent a red flag because of the risk that dumping of tokens by insiders could collapse the price and hurt other investors, some executives said. After reaching an all-time high of $75.35 on April 19, just two days after its launch, $TRUMP crashed to the $7 range by early April, leaving many holders nursing losses. It was trading around $9.55 Thursday. "When the president of the United States launches a meme coin, I thought I might as well put some money inside," said Carl 'Moon' Runefelt, a Dubai-based crypto investor who runs a bitcoin trading channel on YouTube called the "Moon Show." Runefelt said he bought $300,000 worth of the meme coin in tranches at between $50 and $60: "It's probably one of my worst trades, unfortunately." The Reuters analysis showed that eight of the 10 largest crypto exchanges by market share listed the coin within 48 hours of its release. The ninth, Coinbase, added $TRUMP to its listings roadmap on January 18 – indicating it had decided to accept it - and listed the coin three days later. The tenth, Upbit, listed $TRUMP on February 13. That was much faster than they've done on average with the biggest meme coins. Reuters examined how long it took the same 10 exchanges - Binance, Bitget, MEXC, OKX, Coinbase, Bybit, Upbit, and HTX - to list the four other largest meme coins launched since 2022. These, measured by market cap on May 29, are Pepe, Bonk, Fartcoin and dogwifhat. All 10 exchanges listed Pepe and Bonk. Nine listed dogwifhat, and seven listed Fartcoin. On average, the 10 exchanges took 129 days to list those coins. For $TRUMP, they took an average of four. Asked for comment about why they listed $TRUMP so quickly, Bitget, MEXC, OKX, Coinbase and Upbit all said they had not cut any corners with their vetting process. The other five exchanges did not respond to Reuters' questions. Three – Bitget, Coinbase, MEXC – said they moved fast to respond to overwhelming demand for the $TRUMP coin. "The crypto space was buzzing with the hype and, as any other token with a growing craze, it was imperative to add TRUMP," Gracy Chen, Bitget's CEO, said in a statement. Chen said the fact that Trump himself announced the coin on his social media accounts "should kind of solve the compliance issue," citing the fact that "he's the president of the United States." Reuters found no suggestion that Trump or anyone related to his businesses exerted pressure on the exchanges. In response to a request for comment, a White House press official told Reuters the president's assets had been placed in a family trust: "There are no conflicts of interest because the president isn't managing the assets. Any insinuation that there is a conflict of interest is irresponsible." The official referred specific questions about the meme coin to the Trump Organization, which did not respond to Reuters. Coinbase said the $TRUMP token got no special exceptions and the exchange followed its normal process when listing the coin. Paul Grewal, Coinbase's chief legal officer, said many people had to work over the weekend to get the listing done quickly, but no steps were skipped. "Given the information that was shared publicly, we were confident that users could engage with the token positively and safely," Grewal told Reuters. Coinbase listed $TRUMP as an "experimental" token to indicate it comes with "certain risks, including price swings," according to the company's website. The vetting of coins often focuses on how well-known the issuer is, how likely they are to remain in the public eye and how much they engage with the online community to sustain interest in the coin, metrics that $TRUMP would score highly on, according to Santa Clara University finance professor Seoyoung Kim, who specializes in crypto analytics. She cautioned that focusing on vetting speed alone could provide an incomplete picture of investor protection. A more holistic analysis, Kim said, would also involve factors such as the average market cap at which a coin is listed, for how long it has sustained that level before its listing, and its daily trading volumes. With $TRUMP listed so soon after launch, there was little such data for exchanges to parse. $TRUMP's market cap has since fallen to around $1.9 billion, down sharply from its peak above $15 billion on January 19. But that still ranks it amongst the largest meme coins launched since 2022. Reuters ran its listing-speed analysis past five academics with crypto expertise, including Kim, who all said its methodology was sound. David Krause, Emeritus Professor of Finance at Marquette University, who has studied Trump's crypto ventures, said the quickness of the $TRUMP listing "suggests either a dramatic acceleration of due diligence or corners being cut." "Either scenario has significant implications for investor protection and market integrity," he said. The president's rush of business ventures in a lightly-regulated sector that his government is responsible for overseeing has drawn criticism from Democrats, consumer advocacy groups and former financial enforcement officials. "You don't say no to hosting the president's new meme coin," said Corey Frayer, a former senior crypto advisor at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Frayer is now director of a non-profit advocacy group, the Consumer Federation of America. "The president controls who oversees your business and how they enforce the law." Under former President Joe Biden, the SEC maintained that most crypto tokens, including meme coins, should be regulated as securities, making exchanges cautious about listing them. That began to change, quickly, after Trump was elected last November. The Republican has styled himself as the "crypto president," pledging to overhaul regulation of the sector. Following Trump's election, Coinbase – the largest publicly traded crypto exchange in the United States – and several of its rivals began listing more meme coins. In Trump's second term, the SEC has paused or withdrawn high-profile enforcement actions against crypto operators, including a major investor in a Trump family crypto project, and issued a staff statement concluding that meme coins do not constitute securities. An SEC spokesperson declined to comment on the agency's crypto policy and Trump's coin. Trump's family has launched multiple crypto ventures, raking in hundreds of millions of dollars. The $TRUMP token quickly earned an estimated $320 million in fees, though it's not publicly known how that amount has been divided between a Trump-controlled entity and its partners. Exchanges have been major beneficiaries of Trump's embrace of the industry. $TRUMP has generated significant revenue for the 10 exchanges in Reuters' review: more than $172 million in trading fees, according to estimates based on standard fees compiled for the news agency by CoinDesk Data, a crypto industry data provider. Trade in the coin, meanwhile, has favored a small group of investors. At the top, 45 crypto wallets cleared about $1.2 billion in profits overall, while another 712,777 wallets have collectively lost $4.3 billion, according to trading data analyzed by crypto analysis firm Bubblemaps as of June 18. In the middle, more than half a million wallets made an average of $5,656 profit each. In listing $TRUMP, some exchanges proceeded despite a factor they'd previously labelled as a red flag: 80% of the coin's supply was held by the Trump family and its partners. Such a high concentration of ownership can allow the team behind a coin to sell large amounts of it at once, collapsing the price for retail investors. The terms of the $TRUMP coin specified that its total supply would be gradually unlocked over three years after initial release. On January 16, the day before $TRUMP was released, the New York State Department of Financial Services issued an alert to consumers about the risks of meme coins. Such coins, the notice said, are carried by platforms not licensed by the state and the supply of the digital tokens is often controlled by a small number of people. That opens the door to "pump-and-dump schemes," the regulator noted, in which public hype by their issuers leads to a jump in price – with big, early investors exiting and smaller retail buyers left holding the losses that follow. The NYDFS declined to comment beyond the guidance. Coinbase, which is subject to New York regulations, blocked state residents from accessing the token, but allowed U.S. customers elsewhere to trade. To list $TRUMP in New York, the exchange would have faced a long list of risk assessment and governance requirements. Some other exchanges acknowledged they looked past concerns about the concentration in a bid to serve customer demand. MEXC's chief operating officer, Tracy Jin, told Reuters that, because of the concentration of tokens, $TRUMP did not meet its usual standards for a full listing on its main board, but the exchange pushed ahead anyway due to strong demand. In a follow-up written statement, an MEXC spokesperson said that a "faster-than-usual" listing was possible because the coin had clear market momentum and it met "our listing standards early." Commenting on the Reuters listing-speed analysis, the spokesperson said market conditions and demand for political meme tokens had changed since 2022, "making direct comparisons less relevant." Bitget also had concerns about the 80% figure, CEO Chen told Reuters. "Eighty percent held by the team, even though there's a little bit of a lock-up period, is in my opinion very risky," said Chen. "Ultimately, user trading volume, demand … overrode the so-called risky factor here." Like some exchanges, Bitget, based in the Seychelles, does not have a business presence in the U.S. or serve clients who reside there, Chen said. "Globally," she added, "people are generally aware of the risks associated with trading meme coins." Upbit, which operates in South Korea, said it does not comment on specific coin listings but that it has "a rigorous and comprehensive evaluation process." Erald Ghoos, CEO for Europe of OKX, said the exchange's legal and compliance teams stayed up all night over different time zones to work on the listing. Seychelles-registered OKX says its diligence process requires "meticulous preparation." It decided to list $TRUMP within 26 hours.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
US manufacturers are stuck in a rut despite subsidies from Biden and protection from Trump
Democrats and Republicans don't agree on much, but they share a conviction that the government should help American manufacturers, one way or another. Democratic President Joe Biden handed out subsidies to chipmakers and electric vehicle manufacturers. Republican President Donald Trump is building a wall of import taxes — tariffs — around the U.S. economy to protect domestic industry from foreign competition. Yet American manufacturing has been stuck in a rut for nearly three years. And it remains to be seen whether the trend will reverse itself. The U.S. Labor Department reports that American factories shed 7,000 jobs in June for the second month in a row. Manufacturing employment is on track to drop for the third straight year. The Institute for Supply Management, an association of purchasing managers, reported that manufacturing activity in the United States shrank in June for the fourth straight month. In fact, U.S. factories have been in decline for 30 of the 32 months since October 2022, according to ISM. 'The past three years have been a real slog for manufacturing,'' said Eric Hagopian, CEO of Pilot Precision Products, a maker of industrial cutting tools in South Deerfield, Massachusetts. 'We didn't get destroyed like we did in the recession of 2008. But we've been in this stagnant, sort of stationary environment.'' Big economic factors contributed to the slowdown: A surge in inflation, arising from the unexpectedly strong economic recovery from COVID-19, raised factory expenses and prompted the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates 11 times in 2022 and 2023. The higher borrowing costs added to the strain. Government policy was meant to help. Biden's tax incentives for semiconductor and clean energy production triggered a factory-building boom – investment in manufacturing facilities more than tripled from April 2021 through October 2024 – that seemed to herald a coming surge in factory production and hiring. Eventually anyway. But the factory investment spree has faded as the incoming Trump administration launched trade wars and, working with Congress, ended Biden's subsidies for green energy. Now, predicts Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, 'manufacturing production will continue to flatline.' 'If production is flat, that suggests manufacturing employment will continue to slide,' Zandi said. 'Manufacturing is likely to suffer a recession in the coming year.'' Meanwhile, Trump is attempting to protect U.S. manufacturers — and to coax factories to relocate and produce in America — by imposing tariffs on goods made overseas. He slapped 50% taxes on steel and aluminum, 25% on autos and auto parts, 10% on many other imports. In some ways, Trump's tariffs can give U.S. factories an edge. Chris Zuzick, vice president at Waukesha Metal Products, said the Sussex, Wisconsin-based manufacturer is facing stiff competition for a big contract in Texas. A foreign company offers much lower prices. But 'when you throw the tariff on, it gets us closer,'' Zuzick said. 'So that's definitely a situation where it's beneficial.'' But American factories import and use foreign products, too – machinery, chemicals, raw materials like steel and aluminum. Taxing those inputs can drive up costs and make U.S producers less competitive in world markets. Consider steel. Trump's tariffs don't just make imported steel more expensive. By putting the foreign competition at a disadvantage, the tariffs allow U.S. steelmakers to raise prices – and they have. U.S.-made steel was priced at $960 per metric ton as of June 23, more than double the world export price of $440 per ton, according to industry monitor SteelBenchmarker. In fact, U.S. steel prices are so high that Pilot Precision Products has continued to buy the steel it needs from suppliers in Austria and France — and pay Trump's tariff. Trump has also created considerable uncertainty by repeatedly tweaking and rescheduling his tariffs. Just before new import taxes were set to take effect on dozens of countries on July 9, for example, the president pushed the deadline back to Aug. 1 to allow more time for negotiation with U.S. trading partners. The flipflops have left factories, suppliers and customers bewildered about where things stand. Manufacturers voiced their complaints in the ISM survey: 'Customers do not want to make commitments in the wake of massive tariff uncertainty,'' a fabricated metal products company said. 'Tariffs continue to cause confusion and uncertainty for long-term procurement decisions,'' added a computer and electronics firm. 'The situation remains too volatile to firmly put such plans into place.'' Some may argue that things aren't necessarily bad for U.S. manufacturing; they've just returned to normal after a pandemic-related bust and boom. Factories slashed nearly 1.4 million jobs in March and April 2020 when COVID-19 forced many businesses to shut down and Americans to stay home. Then a funny thing happened: American consumers, cooped up and flush with COVID relief checks from the government, went on a spending spree, snapping up manufactured goods like air fryers, patio furniture and exercise machines. Suddenly, factories were scrambling to keep up. They brought back the workers they laid off – and then some. Factories added 379,000 jobs in 2021 — the most since 1994 — and then tacked on another 357,000 in 2022. But in 2023, factory hiring stopped growing and began backtracking as the economy returned to something closer to the pre-pandemic normal. In the end, it was a wash. Factory payrolls last month came to 12.75 million, almost exactly where they stood in February 2020 (12.74 million) just before COVID slammed the economy. 'It's a long, strange trip to get back to where we started,'' said Jared Bernstein, chair of Biden's White House Council of Economic Advisers. Zuzick at Waukesha Metal Products said that it will take time to see if Trump's tariffs succeed in bringing factories back to America. 'The fact is that manufacturing doesn't turn on a dime,'' he said. 'It takes time to switch gears.'' Hagopian at Pilot Precision is hopeful that tax breaks in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill will help American manufacturing regain momentum. 'There may be light at the end of the tunnel that may not be a locomotive bearing down,'' he said. For now, manufacturers are likely to delay big decisions on investing or bringing on new workers until they see where Trump's tariffs settle and what impact they have on the economy, said Ned Hill, professor emeritus in economic development at Ohio State University. 'With all this uncertainty about what the rest of the year is going to look like,'' he said, 'there's a hesitancy to hire people just to lay them off in the near future.'' 'Everyone,'' said Zuzick at Waukesha Metal Products, 'is kind of just waiting for the new normal.''
BreakingNews.ie
an hour ago
- BreakingNews.ie
EU's response to US 30% tariffs will be firm, quick and robust
The European Union's response to US President Donald Trump implementing 30 per cent tariffs on European products will be 'firm, quick and robust', Commissioner Michael McGrath has said. Mr Trump threatened the EU and Mexico with a 30% tariffs on imports to the US from August. Advertisement The US president warned he would impose even higher import taxes if either of the US trading partners decided to retaliate. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen responded by saying the EU prefers a negotiated solution on trade with the United States, and that the bloc would extend its suspension of countermeasures to US tariffs until early August. Mr McGrath, European Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection, said that negotiations have been 'particularly intensive' in recent weeks and they are working to the revised deadline. He said that EU negotiators will leave 'no stone unturned' in getting the best deal possible for the bloc. Advertisement 'We remain in a process and we have been negotiating intensively with the US administration for several weeks now, and that was preceded by further discussions, really going on a number of months,' Mc McGrath told RTE Radio 1. 'But they have been particularly intensive in recent weeks, and we believe that progress has been made. 'We are working towards the revised deadline of August 1. We are particularly conscious of the need, insofar as possible, to remove uncertainty for businesses because we know how damaging that is to international trade, to the prospects and the investment decisions of companies, tariffs are ultimately paid for by somebody along the supply chain, most likely by the end consumer. 'We have two and a half weeks left before the new deadline within which we will leave no stone unturned as a European Union to get the best possible deal for our companies.' Advertisement He said that if the 30% tariff is introduced by the US, the EU has measures in place to respond. 'The European response will be firm, it will be quick and it will be robust,' he added. 'We have been preparing for a range of different scenarios for many months, and so the European Union has been keeping all of the member states, including Ireland, regularly informed of developments, there have been ongoing consultations. 'I want to underline the importance of unity. What we have been doing in relation to countermeasures is preparing for different scenarios. Advertisement 'There are two different sets of packages of countermeasures that amount to the imposition of tariffs of exports from the US into the EU of over €90 billion. 'We do not wish for that to come to pass, but in the event that it does, then we will need to respond if the US proceeds unilaterally with the imposition of tariffs of the order that President Trump has flagged in his letter over the weekend. 'But we have a range of instruments and tools.' He also said that the EU was in a 'strong position', and that the importance of US companies accessing the European market should not be understated. Advertisement Describing it as a 'an exceptionally lucrative market' for the US, he said both sides want to have terms of trade that work for everyone. Meanwhile, Europe Minister Thomas Byrne said Ireland wants to see a trade deal between the European Union and the US agreed as soon as possible. Mr Byrne is at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council on Trade in Brussels on Monday. Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic is updating ministers in Brussels on the negotiations. Mr Byrne said: 'We want to see a deal between the EU and the US agreed as soon as possible, including, if possible, in advance of the August 1st deadline. 'The Irish Government strongly supports the efforts of trade commissioner Sefcovic. 'We remain cautiously optimistic about reaching agreement in principle on a framework agreement in the coming days.' Other items on the agenda at the summit include a discussion on ongoing bilateral trade negotiations and EU-China trade relations. Mr Byrne said: 'Now, more than ever, we need to expand our trade and diversify our markets. 'An ambitious trade agenda, with new partners around the globe, is in our overall interests. 'But in pursuing this agenda, we must maintain EU standards on food safety, animal and plant health, as well as remain faithful to our European values of supporting better environmental and human rights standards around the world.'
