A North Carolina senator on Tuesday laid into the head of Homeland Security for what he described as amateur management of the agency responsible for providing disaster relief.

Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), in a press gaggle with reporters outside the U.S. Capitol, said he has no confidence in Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, saying Noem should not feel a point of pride in her work during her time with DHS.

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Tillis's comments were made just days after Border Patrol agents shot and killed a 37-year-old Veteran's Affairs nurse in Minneapolis amid ongoing protests of immigration enforcement in the city. Several Republican expressed concern over the investigation.

In his assessment, Tillis made a point to compare how DHS operated during Trump’s first presidency compared to DHS with Noem at the helm.

“Trump 1 was right on with disaster recovery if you think about [Hurricanes] Matthew and Florence, and this one, she’s not even doing the other half of her job,” Tillis said.

In 2025, President Donald Trump announced plans to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is overseen by DHS, after the 2025 hurricane season, adding that the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which killed more than 100 people in North Carolina, was part of the reason he wanted to eliminate the agency.

WRAL reported last month that the head of the N.C. Association of County Commissioners, Kevin Leonard, said it's almost as if the federal government is intentionally making the process slower and more cumbersome in order to reduce the amount of money being spent: “It's like they doubled down on increasing regulations that create increased red tape for reimbursements for the people in our communities, for our local governments,” he said.

According to Tillis, Noem fired Cameron Hamilton, who was hired as the acting administrator of FEMA, after Hamilton broke from the Trump administration and said he did not support dismantling the agency.

“These are amateurish, assistant manager sort of thought processes going into somebody who’s a secretary of a cabinet-level position,” Tillis said. “It’s unacceptable.”

While Tillis said Noem would not be in Washington, D.C., if he were the president, the Republican senator stopped short of saying she should resign. Tillis was one of 59 senators who voted in favor of her confirmation as DHS secretary.

WRAL News in Raleigh reached out to DHS. A spokesperson for DHS did not immediately respond to a comment, but forwarded WRAL's inquiry to the White House.

Two weeks earlier, the federal government granted another $116 million in disaster relief funding to North Carolina intended to support the state’s recovery from Hurricane Helene and to prevent future disaster damage across the state.

The federal money came about a month after North Carolina and other states won their lawsuit over Republican President Donald Trump's attempt to shut down disaster mitigation projects in numerous states. Trump had criticized the idea as "wasteful" spending approved by Congress under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden.  

Homeland Security and FEMA officials have previously denied that they've been slow to react to North Carolina's needs, or intentionally unresponsive. Noem said in a statement Wednesday that “North Carolina communities are rebuilding stronger, and today’s approvals show this administration’s commitment to cutting red tape and getting recovery dollars out the door faster.”

Federal officials said Wednesday that at least $1 billion has been provided to North Carolina for recovery efforts. FEMA has also paid more than $549 million in grants to survivors to directly help families recover, the agency said.