CNN
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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.
Beyond its $20 billion-plus Disaster Relief Fund, FEMA also distributes billions of dollars in grants for disaster preparedness, mitigation, resilience and homeland security, which are intended to bolster emergency management before a disaster strikes. The Trump administration has vowed to cut some of those programs.
FEMA staff first received orders to prioritize payments for Missouri, after state officials warned the Department of Homeland Security that they would have to lay off state emergency management personnel if the funds didn’t arrive quickly, according to internal emails obtained by CNN.
Homeland security officials forwarded Missouri’s request to FEMA, and within 24 hours, the agency’s acting administrator instructed staff to start paying the state. At the time, extremely little money was getting out of FEMA, multiple sources tell CNN.
“Today, is there a way we can focus on payments to Missouri specifically and clear these out?” acting FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton, a Trump appointee, told agency personnel in an email, which CNN obtained.
In the memo, Hamilton wrote that Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe and Sen. Eric Schmitt had been notified the payments would commence and were “extremely glad to hear it.” Both Kehoe and Schmitt are Republicans.
In the weeks that followed, Missouri began receiving various previously paused grants, even as other states were forced to wait for a range of FEMA funds – including, in some cases, disaster assistance – multiple sources tell CNN.
The episode alarmed some FEMA officials who had never experienced such a wide-reaching funding pause at the agency, as other states and locales pushed for their own funding to be cleared. Multiple officials, speaking to CNN anonymously out of fear of retribution, said the money for Missouri was not assistance for any recent disaster and seemed no more urgent than the paused payments to other states.
One of the officials noted that the governor of Missouri pushed for the Trump administration to release the funds.
“But is the same thing going to happen if Gavin Newsom calls the White House and says, ‘Hey, we really need X, Y, Z?’” the official told CNN.
CNN reached out to Kehoe and Schmitt about the situation.
Last week, another directive went out to FEMA staff: prioritize payments for Virginia.
The request came from the White House, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation. It is unclear which specific funds were prioritized.
A DHS spokesperson would not clarify why Missouri and Virginia were singled out for priority but reiterated that grants are greenlit based solely on need.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Communications Director Rob Damschen told CNN the governor “works closely with federal officials to ensure that Virginia communities receive critical disaster recovery support. Governor Youngkin sincerely appreciates the level of engagement by President Trump and his entire administration who are focused on delivering for Virginians.”
Yet some inside FEMA argue the unfreezing of federal funding goes beyond leveraging working relationships.
“This is politicization of grant funds and disaster assistance like we’ve never seen before,” a second FEMA official told CNN.
FEMA payments have started flowing more freely in recent weeks, but the agency is still working through its backlog, which has proved consequential for some of the recipients.
As FEMA greenlit some payments, North Carolina was waiting on more than $150 million in disaster assistance for its recovery from Hurricane Helene, according to the state’s office of emergency management.
North Carolina Emergency Management spokesman Justin Graney told CNN more than half of that backlog has now been cleared, but the ongoing delays have been detrimental to their recovery efforts as the state waits to be reimbursed by the federal government.
“Many communities are not situated to handle such an expense like Helene brought to their community. These are small western North Carolina communities,” Graney said.
As FEMA’s previously awarded funds trickle out of the agency, the White House has also recently denied additional disaster relief to two states with Democratic leadership.
This month, the Trump administration notified North Carolina that it would no longer fully reimburse the state for funding used to support the recovery from Hurricane Helene.
Such a decision is common months after a destructive natural disaster. Yet during the 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly lambasted FEMA’s response in North Carolina, saying the agency had failed to provide adequate resources to hurricane survivors.
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, says the state will appeal the decision to the White House.
The administration also denied Washington state’s request for $34 million in additional disaster assistance to help in its recovery from last year’s “bomb cyclone,” which killed two people and destroyed homes and infrastructure, saying the funding “is not warranted.”
“There are very clear criteria to qualify for these emergency relief funds. Washington’s application met all of them,” Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, wrote in a statement after Trump’s denial. “This is another troubling example of the federal government withholding funding.”
Ferguson, like Stein, has vowed to appeal the decision.
