CHARLOTTE, N.C. — New Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin made his first official trip Tuesday to Western North Carolina, where local leaders say federal red tape is still slowing recovery 18 months after Hurricane Helene.

Mullin spent the morning in Lake Lure and Chimney Rock — two of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Helene in 2024 — meeting with local leaders who say bureaucratic hurdles slowed rebuilding. For months, local officials across Western North Carolina warned that federal requirements from permitting rules to reimbursement delays stalled progress, leaving some residents in temporary housing and communities struggling to rebuild critical infrastructure.

On Tuesday, Mullin repeatedly talked about cutting through that bureaucracy.

“(North Carolinians) haven’t been forgotten. And I know, because I work with this federal delegation, that it’s a conversation that happens almost every day,” Mullin said. “The federal government isn’t going to take care of everybody’s problems… but we’re there to help ease the pain, at the end of the day we’re going to do everything we can possibly do to make it happen.”

Mullin was sworn in last month after former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was fired following mounting criticism of her leadership, including over immigration enforcement. North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis was the first Republican senator to call for Noem’s removal, saying he had no confidence in her and that she was “incompetent.”

FEMA buyouts, red tape

Mullin’s visit came one day after the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced it would spend $26 million to buy out 75 flood-damaged homes, part of what the agency described as a renewed urgency to clear long-standing bottlenecks and speed up recovery under Mullin’s direction.

The program is designed to relieve homeowners who are paying mortgages and taxes on unlivable homes, according to a FEMA news release. Federal officials said more buyouts could follow as FEMA works through a backlog of pending requests, many of which were delayed by eligibility issues.

“One of our highest priorities is to clean up this backlog,” he said. “We’re cleaning our plates so we can start fresh again.”

The administration has also already scrapped a policy that required the DHS secretary to personally approve contracts and grants over $100,000, a rule local officials said created a major bottleneck.

“To eliminate waste and fraud and abuse, (review) still needs to happen, but it doesn’t always have to happen at the secretary’s desk,” U.S. Sen. Ted Budd told Mullin Tuesday. “Things are already moving, and this is your first visit. You haven’t been in office two weeks, so we’re grateful for your help.”

Congressional leaders said Mullin’s decision to make Western North Carolina his first trip mirrored President Donald Trump’s own visit to the region in 2025, his first trip after he was inaugurated.

Local officials and Mullin framed both visits as a signal that recovery remains a White House priority.

“The President made it very clear when we were going through the nomination process, this is where he wanted my first trip to be because, he said, there’s still a tremendous amount of work to go,” Mullin said.

Tour of damage and recovery

Mullin’s visit began in Lake Lure where he met with members of Congress and local leaders. From there, he walked through downtown Chimney Rock, spoke with Mayor Peter O’Leary and first responders, then held a roundtable at the Chimney Rock Volunteer Fire Department with federal, state and local officials. The group of leaders included top FEMA official Karen Evans and a representative from Gov. Josh Stein’s office.

Officials described progress and ongoing challenges: rebuilt roads, cleared debris and restored waterways alongside lingering housing, infrastructure and funding gaps.

Speakers pressed FEMA and Mullin to speed up hazard mitigation grants, ease reimbursement rules and give communities more flexibility to rebuild. They raised concerns about policies that treat mountain flooding like coastal storms, creating challenges for debris removal and slowing reimbursement rates. Others pointed to the burden of navigating multiple funding programs.

Mullin said he is open to reforms, especially administrative changes rather than congressional action. “We’re dealing with a 1,000‑year flood. We have to look at it from a different perspective and give flexibility where we can,” Mullin said.

The visit also came amid broader debate over FEMA’s role. Trump previously floated the idea to eliminate the agency, but Mullin said Tuesday the focus is instead on restructuring how it operates.

“I’ve talked to the President a lot about this. Reforming FEMA… would be a better term of what we’re trying to do,” he said. “I look at it as FEMA should never be, actually, the first responders, that’s the state, that’s the county, that’s the municipalities, but we’re able to help fund it and then give you guys a flexibility.”

U.S. Reps stress urgency

After the visit, Budd, U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards and U.S. Rep. Tim Moore, Republicans whose districts cover parts of western North Carolina, said they were excited about the momentum inside FEMA sparked by Mullin, particularly around efforts to clear backlogged projects and speed up approvals.

“I certainly appreciated this renewed sense of vigor that I felt and heard from those folks working with FEMA and they were very plain to me that the secretary has empowered them to remove some of the obstacles that have slowed our progress,” Edwards said. “As much as we are proud of what we’ve accomplished together, we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

Lawmakers also stressed the need to keep national attention on Western North Carolina as recovery stretches into its second year, warning that progress depends in part on how much urgency Washington maintains in the months ahead.

“We need to keep this on the mind nationally,” Moore said, “because the job that we all do in Washington is contingent on making sure people in Washington understand what a big deal this is for this region.”

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