As initial search-and-rescue operations in the July 4 catastrophic Texas flooding started to recede, new reporting emerged that the federal response had been delayed by a new budget rule imposed by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

A Media Matters analysis found that these new details were covered extensively in CNN and MSNBC’s Texas flood reporting from the evening of July 9 through July 13, while Fox News seemed to discuss them almost exclusively for the purpose of minimizing Noem’s role.

• From July 9 through July 13, CNN (77 mins) and MSNBC (80 mins) aired more than 2.5 hours of coverage combined, across at least 63 segments, on Noem’s budget rule that allegedly caused a more than 72-hour delay in the deployment of federal search-and-rescue teams and aerial imagery requested by the state to help with rescue efforts.

• Fox News aired 10 minutes of coverage on the rule across 6 segments. Half of that time was taken up by two interviews with Noem in which she denied the allegations. 

The flooding, which started in the early hours of July 4 along the Guadalupe River, was one of the deadliest U.S. floods in the past century, killing over 130 people. In the aftermath, “a dozen current and former FEMA employees” said that “deployments of critical resources, such as tactical and specialized search and rescue teams, were delayed as a result of a budget restriction requiring Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem to approve every purchase, contract and grant over $100,000.” Approval allegedly did not come until the afternoon of Monday, July 7 — over 72 hours after the flooding began.

Reportedly, “Texas’s request for aerial imagery to help with search and rescue efforts was also ‘delayed as it awaited Noem’s approval for the necessary contract,’ and, at a FEMA-manned disaster call center, ‘callers have faced longer wait times as the agency awaited Noem’s approval for a contract to bring in additional support staff.’” 

More than half of Fox News’ 10 minutes of coverage of the allegations that Noem slowed FEMA’s response was accounted for by two interviews with the Homeland Security secretary. 

On the July 10 edition of Fox & Friends, Noem was asked about reporting “accusing you of slowing the process.” Noem responded, “Well, there you go. Fake news CNN again is absolutely trash what they are doing by saying that. … The fact that CNN is continuing to be political and push out fake information and false information and lies is not shocking, but it’s a disservice to the country. It’s a real disservice to the country because people start to mistrust anything that comes out, then, over the news.” 

Notably, neither Fox News’ hosts nor Noem provided any detail about the allegations, nor responded to them directly. MSNBC’s Jen Psaki responded to Noem’s statements on Fox by pointing out, “It's not CNN making those allegations. The allegations, which CNN reported on, actually came from four officials inside of Noem's own agency — people who are risking their own careers to get the truth out to the public.” Psaki also called out Noem for attacking the media, saying, “It's like a knee-jerk attack-the-press response, even though when the facts and truth are very clear. She doesn't want you to trust the news, any of us.”   

On Fox News Sunday, anchor Shannon Bream teed up Noem: “There has been a lot of back-and-forth about what the federal response was or wasn't. So, I want to come to you. Let’s separate a little fact from fiction.” Noem this time insisted that the criticism “is all politics,” but she acknowledged that the policy does exist, saying it’s for “accountability purposes.” Bream also referenced new reporting that the rule had caused delays at FEMA disaster assistance lines. On the question of how the policy impacted these flood survivor call centers, Noem claimed:

Noem’s response contradicts reporting by The New York Times on July 11 that “the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not answer nearly two-thirds of calls to its disaster assistance line … because the agency had fired hundreds of contractors at call centers.” 

According to the Times, “The agency laid off the contractors on July 5 after their contracts expired and were not extended, according to the documents and the person briefed on the matter. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who has instituted a new requirement that she personally approve expenses over $100,000, did not renew the contracts until Thursday, five days after the contracts expired.”

A Fox News weekend show, MediaBuzz, provided the network’s only criticism of Noem’s budget rule. Political analyst Laura Fink remarked: 

CNN and MSNBC aired more than 2.5 hours of combined coverage discussing reports that the budget rule requiring Noem’s sign-off on expenditures exceeding $100,000, first implemented in June, had disrupted FEMA’s response to the deadly Texas floods. As MSNBC’s Chris Hayes pointed out, even at the time the rule was first reported it was described as “absolutely nuts” for its potential to create a “bottleneck” for “an agency that routinely spends billions of dollars on disaster relief” and “needs to be able to spend quickly.”

Both networks hosted emergency response experts to provide more detail on how the rule breaks from federal disaster protocols and why it would impact response. 

Former FEMA administrator under the Biden administration Deanne Criswell appeared on both CNN and MSNBC. On CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins she explained: “You can never get time back. And so the quicker you can move resources into an area, even before you know the extent of it, then the easier it's going to be to be able to support those state requests for assistance immediately. What happened, I think here, is that we couldn't move, or FEMA couldn't move, those resources in like they normally would to be on the ground ready once they found out how bad the situation was, and you lose time. And that's time that can cost lives in the end. And so it's really important for emergency managers to always be proactive and thinking ahead and getting resources in place.” [CNN, The Source with Kaitlan Collins, 7/9/25]

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, known for his leadership of relief efforts during Hurricane Katrina, appeared on CNN’s Laura Coates Live to discuss what it would mean if FEMA was no longer the coordinating body for the government's disaster response. Honoré said, “If Texas needed help, they would then have to call each federal agency individually. They would have to call the Coast Guard. They would have to call the Corps of Engineers. They would have to deal with HHS if they need doctors. This is ridiculous. I think it's a bad idea. It's broke and it may need to be fixed, but not eliminated. It's a good organization and they have good people there. And it took, it takes five days to get any deployment approved in FEMA, right now. This one took 72 hours.” [CNN, Laura Coates Live, 7/9/25]

On MSNBC’s The Briefing with Jen Psaki, Janet Napolitano, former Homeland Security secretary under President Barack Obama, spoke on the 72 hour delay. “Well, it seems abnormally long,” she said. “I mean, when you have a disaster like this, you have the ability to surge resources, if you're properly prepared for them. And speed really does matter, particularly in that initial 72 hours after something like a flash flood. … And so that delay is regrettable. … But there certainly are some changes that have been made in FEMA under the present administration that seem to have slowed things down.” [MSNBC, The Briefing with Jen Psaki, 7/10/25] 

Jeremy Edwards, former FEMA deputy director of public affairs, appeared on MSNBC’s Chris Jansing Reports. “I think what I saw in FEMA's response is a break from a typical process that has previously allowed the agency to lean forward in events like this,” he said. “And what I mean by that is when a disaster strikes or leading up to one, FEMA has a lot of autonomy and a wide latitude to be able to pre-position resources, pre-position personnel, to make sure that once the state requests assistance, there is no lag time between when that request is made and when they're able to offer that assistance. So based on the reporting I've seen and from conversations I've had with people inside the agency, it seems like that process has kind of put the agency on its back foot and slowed down some of the response efforts that they’ve been able to undertake.” [MSNBC, Chris Jansing Reports, 7/11/25] 

Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC for any of the terms “Texas,” “Kerr,” “Guadalupe,” “water,” or “river” or any variations of either of the terms “flood” or “rain” within close proximity of any of the terms “FEMA,” “Federal Emergency Management Agency,” “federal,” “the fed,” “Noem,” “response,” “rule,” “100,000,” “DHS” or “Homeland Security” or any variation of the term “budget” from 8 p.m. ET on July 9, 2025, when CNN first aired the allegations that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s budget controls slowed the Federal Emergency Management Agency's response to the Texas flooding, through July 13, 2025.

We timed segments, which we defined as instances when the allegations that a new Department of Homeland Security budgetary rule delayed FEMA's response to the Texas flooding was the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of the allegations. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed the allegations with one another.

We did not include mentions, which we defined as instances when a single speaker in a segment on another topic mentioned the allegations without another speaker engaging with the comment, or teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about the federal response to the allegations scheduled to air later in the broadcast.

We rounded all times to the nearest minute.