When billions in emergency funds were stalled, the Trump administration sped FEMA money to some GOP-led states

At a time when critical funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency has slowed to a crawl, some states — with Republican governors — have been luckier than others in prying money loose.

At a time when critical funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency has slowed to a crawl, some states — with Republican governors — have been luckier than others in prying money loose. The Trump administration directed FEMA to prioritize payments to GOP-led Missouri and Virginia in recent weeks, while some other states’ requests weren’t being filled, according to multiple sources and internal communications obtained by CNN. The situation has raised concerns at FEMA that the White House is playing politics with critical emergency management funds. President Donald Trump and his allies have criticized FEMA for months as partisan, ineffective and unnecessary. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said she will “eliminate FEMA” altogether. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, denied any special treatment for red states, saying “the Secretary reviews every grant based on need — not discrimination based on state.” Brian Hughes, a spokesman for Trump’s National Security Council, told CNN: “The only criteria for critical relief is ensuring we deploy all available resources to those impacted in the most efficient way to help all Americans. The premise of this inquiry and complaints of unnamed ‘sources’ are categorically false.” The first directives to distribute funding came in March, when FEMA was sitting on a backlog of more than $100 billion of previously awarded grants and disaster assistance, as agency personnel awaited guidance from the Trump administration on how to distribute the money without violating the president’s executive orders that funding not end up benefiting illegal immigrants.