North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein says he was “surprised” and “disappointed” that the Federal Emergency Management Agency denied the state’s request to extend FEMA’s 100% match for eligible Hurricane Helene costs in the state.

What You Need To Know

  • Gov. Josh Stein says he was “surprised” that FEMA denied the state’s request to extend the 100% match for eligible Hurricane Helene recovery costs

  • Stein and nearly every member of the congressional delegation supported extending the cost share

  • The extension denial comes as the Trump administration takes a close look at FEMA

Stein and nearly every member of the congressional delegation supported extending the 100% cost share another six months, going toward recovery efforts like debris removal.

But in a letter to the governor this month, FEMA acting Administrator Cameron Hamilton wrote “it has been determined that the increased level of funding you have requested… is not warranted.” Instead, the cost share dropped to 90%.

In a letter to President Donald Trump released Friday, Stein appealed the decision, writing: “I… respectfully urge you to reconsider FEMA’s regretful decision and extend our 100% cost share period for six months – failing that, then for three months.”

On Monday, in an interview with Spectrum News, Stein said the loss of a 100% federal match means the state potentially will be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars. In his letter to the president, Stein said the denial is “already hampering our ongoing recovery efforts.”

Earlier this month, White House spokesman Kush Desai defended ending the 100% federal match, telling Spectrum News, “President Trump pulled every lever of executive power to rapidly deploy the emergency measures desperately needed by North Carolina that only the federal government could provide. The administration has fulfilled this critical emergency role, and we continue to work with North Carolina officials to get the state back on track.”

In his letter, Stein said the Army Corps of Engineers has ramped up debris removal since Trump took office, but there’s a lot of work remaining, costing potentially $1 billion to $2 billion more. It’s why Stein says the state needs the federal match to be 100%.

“The fact of the matter is that the federal government has provided 100% reimbursement for debris removal in other storms. Katrina, Maria, Ike. This has happened before and Hurricane Helene’s impact on North Carolina is absolutely in keeping with the extent of damage those places, the states and Puerto Rico, experienced,” Stein said. “Every dollar that we don’t get reimbursed by the feds is one dollar less to help a small business, to help a homeowner, so we need these funds desperately.”

The extension denial comes as the Trump administration takes a close look at FEMA, arguing major changes need to be made, and more power should be put in the hands of local and state governments.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Trump at a recent cabinet meeting “we’re going to eliminate FEMA.”

Stein told Spectrum News that FEMA is “imperfect” and said there are lots of people who have had frustrations dealing with the agency. But he said “we can make FEMA better without ending FEMA… It needs to be more agile in getting money to communities quicker. And I am coming up with a series of proposals… on ways we can make it more efficient, more streamlined.”

North Carolina Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards, whose district in the western part of the state was battered by the hurricane, recently released a plan to “fix FEMA” and he told Spectrum News earlier this month that “whether we call it FEMA or whether we use some other acronym we will need a team of folks in Washington, D.C., that are equipped to assist states in their recoveries from natural disasters.”

Stein emphasized the importance of FEMA.

“If we lost FEMA, it would be a real problem. We don’t have a means as a state to get individual assistance to homeowners… immediately after the storm so they can go to a hotel, or they can go buy groceries or buy clothes to replace those lost in a storm. These are things the federal government has done, and we need them to continue to do.”

With Trump marking 100 days in office this week, Stein said the administration’s response has been “good on one hand but not good on the other hand.”

Stein points to the administration’s debris removal efforts as a positive and praises the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which recently advanced the state’s $1.4 billion grant for western North Carolina. The state’s plan proposes most of the money go to housing recovery for low- and moderate-income residents and the rest for infrastructure rebuilding and economic development. The HUD grant received support from the majority of the North Carolina congressional delegation, which wrote a letter to the HUD secretary in April expressing its support.

Stein is concerned about the Trump administration not extending FEMA’s 100% match and its recent cuts to AmeriCorps teams helping in western North Carolina.

“I’m going to urge the federal government to be my partner, to be the state’s partner, in this work. When they do right by western North Carolina I will thank them for that. When they have not done right by North Carolina, I will tell them that they should do better. And that’s exactly what I will continue to do,” Stein said.