Four officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) told CNN that the federal response to the devastating Texas floods was slowed by a Trump administration rule requiring cost approval from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The sources told CNN that Noem now needs to approve any expenditure anticipated to cost over $100,000.

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“The sources tell us that FEMA’s deployment of urban search and rescue teams, which are typically deployed in anticipation they might be needed, instead was delayed until Monday, three days after the flood,” CNN host Anderson Cooper explained.

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“Now, a source also tells us that a request Texas made for FEMA aerial imagery to aid in the search was also delayed, waiting for Secretary Noem’s approval.  Now, additionally, multiple FEMA officials say that they were taken aback by the agency’s relatively limited response in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.”

The officials also told CNN that callers endured long wait times at a disaster call center as FEMA awaited approval from Noem for more staff to answer phones.

$100,000, they explained, is equivalent to “pennies” compared to the billions of dollars the agency often spends when disaster strikes. The rule makes it impossible for the agency to work as it once did, they said.

“We were operating under a clear set of guidance: lean forward, be prepared, anticipate what the state needs, and be ready to deliver it,” one official explained. “That is not as clear of an intent for us at the moment.”

The Trump administration has disputed these claims with a focus on tooting its own horn rather than on alleviating the suffering going on in Texas.

In a reply to an X post from the senior digital editor for Meidas Touch that showed a clip of Cooper talking about Noem’s budget limitations, the official account of the Department of Homeland Security wrote, “This is a FAKE NEWS LIE from CNN. This reporting is an unapparelled [SIC] display of activist journalism and distracts from the robust, coordinated federal response led by Secretary Noem that has saved over 900+ lives.”

“While these ‘journalists’ slept comfortably in D.C., Secretary Noem deployed to Texas, working day and night to approve every possible need that search and rescue workers had. Within moments of the flooding in Texas, DHS assets, including the U.S. Coast Guard, tactical Border Patrol units and FEMA personnel surged into unprecedented action alongside Texas first responders. The U.S. Coast Guard alone rescued over 230 Americans.”

The post claimed Noem “is leading a historic, first-of-its-kind approach to disaster funding: putting states first by providing upfront recovery support — moving money faster than ever and jump starting recovery.”

The post refers to the Trump administration’s ultimate goal to abolish FEMA altogether in favor of state agencies fully managing their own disasters, a move that experts say could be disastrous as climate change continues to cause increasingly severe weather and states lack the funding and resources to fully combat it.

Noem has stood by this goal, telling reporters on Wednesday that, “We, as a federal government, don’t manage disasters. The state does. We come in and support them, and that’s exactly what we did in this situation.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) also praised the president for his response to the floods. “Never have I seen a response as quick or as effective as I have the Trump administration’s response to this storm,” he claimed.

In a separate statement to reporters, he also called it “the word choice of losers” to try to figure out who is to blame for the lack of advanced warning before the floods. He caused widespread anger when he compared the devastation to losing a football game.