The scrutiny on the agency comes as President Donald Trump has repeatedly questioned the necessity of FEMA and called for states to take a greater role in disaster response.

The head of FEMA’s Urban Search and Rescue branch, which runs a network of teams stationed across the country that can swiftly respond to natural disasters, resigned on Monday.

David Richardson, the acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), on Wednesday defended his agency’s handling of recent deadly floods in Texas, claiming the response was a “model” for “how disasters should be handled”.