FEMA’s Shadow Administrator Investigated by DHS Watchdog

The Rise and Fall of Kara Voorhies in the Department of Homeland Security

An outside contractor, Kara Voorhies, who was hired as a consultant and adviser to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), gained significant influence over the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) over the past year. According to sources who worked with her, she played a major role in steering the disaster agency’s spending and day-to-day operations.

Now under scrutiny as part of a broader investigation by the DHS Office of Inspector General into how contracts were handled under former Secretary Kristi Noem, Voorhies has become a central figure in a growing controversy. Federal regulations typically prohibit contractors from making decisions that bind the government on core agency work such as policy changes, awarding contracts, approving budgets, or overseeing operations. Contractors are also not supposed to make personnel decisions, such as hiring and firing or supervising federal employees.

However, six current and former senior officials who worked with Voorhies at FEMA said she often weighed in on — and in some instances decided — those kinds of issues for the agency. One senior official described her as “the shadow administrator.”

A Controversial Role in FEMA’s Operations

Voorhies played a key role in the department’s efforts to scrutinize spending at FEMA, which has a multibillion-dollar budget. During this period, DHS delayed funds, slashed emergency preparedness grants, and restricted agency operations. Internal emails reviewed by show that senior FEMA officials sought Voorhies’ approval before disbursing disaster aid, briefing Congress, or sending documents to the White House.

Officials said they often couldn’t tell whether the decisions were Voorhies’ own or whether she was only passing along what Noem and Lewandowski wanted. Despite this, Voorhies did not respond to messages sent by to multiple phone numbers and email addresses listed for her.

DHS, which oversees FEMA, did not respond to questions about Voorhies’ role and her work inside the department. A White House spokesperson referred to DHS.

After Noem’s removal, the administration terminated Voorhies, according to three sources. Trump administration lawyers said in a court filing last week in an unrelated case that “Ms. Voorhies is no longer employed by or serving as a contractor with DHS or FEMA.”

Soon after her ouster, investigators from the inspector general’s office at DHS seized Voorhies’ government-issued equipment and documents as part of its broader probe into DHS contracting practices under Noem and her de facto chief of staff, Corey Lewandowski, the three sources said. The Wall Street Journal first reported investigators’ interest in Voorhies.

In the court filing last week — part of a case challenging recent FEMA staff cuts — the administration’s lawyers acknowledged the inspector general probe, saying they have been unable to forensically image Voorhies’ work phones because the device is in the custody of the watchdog office.

Attorneys challenging the staff reductions say DHS went too far in cutting the workforce, and they’re seeking records from Voorhies, along with Noem and Lewandowski.

Who Is Kara Voorhies?

Noem’s handling of contracts at DHS was a key factor in Trump’s decision to remove her. Lewandowski’s micromanagement of the department — including his involvement in contracts — has also been a recurring source of tension with White House officials.

Voorhies served as a gatekeeper for Noem and Lewandowski, helping implement their strict spending controls — including a policy requiring Noem’s personal signoff on any expenditure over $100,000 — as the Trump administration sought to dismantle and overhaul FEMA, multiple senior officials said. That rule has been blamed for a massive backlog in funding requests.

Several of the senior officials said they were told that Lewandowski personally selected Voorhies and placed her inside FEMA, where she effectively served as his — and Noem’s — “eyes and ears.” The officials questioned whether she had been fully vetted by the administration.

They also said FEMA’s acting chief, Karen Evans — appointed under Trump — was required to route decisions through Voorhies before they could be approved, an assertion backed up by documents has reviewed.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who repeatedly criticized Noem’s oversight of FEMA, raised concerns about Voorhies on the Senate floor in early March.

“I have reason to believe that DHS has delegated responsibilities of the FEMA administrator to an outside contractor,” he said on the Senate floor days before she was terminated. “Who is Kara Voorhies? What is her official role in DHS?”

Tillis has vented frustration over what he saw as Noem’s department slow-walking disaster aid to North Carolina communities battered by Hurricane Helene.

After Noem’s firing, Vice President JD Vance acknowledged FEMA’s missteps to a crowd in North Carolina at a rally.

“We recognize, frankly, that we needed the new leadership to hasten that delivery of resources to the people of North Carolina,” Vance remarked. “It’s useful to have somebody come in and focus on some of this disaster relief and recovery stuff. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

The Ongoing Investigation

The DHS inspector general’s wide-ranging investigation is examining how contracts were pursued and managed, including the roles of Noem and Lewandowski — and now Voorhies as well. Investigators have ordered dozens of DHS officials to preserve records as part of the probe.

Also under scrutiny is Voorhies’ pay, according to two senior DHS officials, who said they were told it may have been as high as $19,000 a week, or about $1 million a year. has not been able to confirm her compensation.

The State Department, where Noem now works, previously directed ’s questions about the investigation to DHS. In response to a text from , Lewandowski dismissed the claim that investigators had confiscated Voorhies’ government equipment, calling it “fake news.”

“I have been told by the [Chief Information Officer] that all of her equipment was turned into him,” Lewandowski wrote. “Please go back and verify your fake sources.”

Lewandowski did not respond to a follow-up message challenging his claim – or a request for comment on the rest of the story.

A spokesperson for the DHS inspector general declined to comment when asked about the investigation.

In a letter to Congress shortly before Noem was ousted earlier this month, the inspector general, Joseph Cuffari, said DHS, under Noem and Lewandowski, had “systematically obstructed” the watchdog’s work in recent months, including by denying access to internal records and information. He cited 11 instances of alleged obstruction, including one tied to “a criminal investigation with national security implications.”

The Impact of Her Influence

Despite Voorhies’ unusual influence given her contractor status, agency insiders say she was not well-known to those below FEMA’s most senior ranks. She was listed as an “expert/consultant” in the agency’s internal system where she was issued a standard federal email address that didn’t reflect her status as a contractor, which typically limits access and promotes transparency.

“While I was there, we could never get a straight answer about her status,” a former senior official said.

Before FEMA could get a spending request in front of Noem, it had to go through Voorhies first, according to three sources with firsthand knowledge.

“We could not do anything without Kara approving it,” a senior official told . “We could not engage with Congress and governors or talk to the White House unless she was aware. And it slowly became more and more and more over time.”

Internal emails and messages obtained by show Voorhies questioned the release of some disaster assistance. In one case, she told FEMA to fast-track funds to a district after its Republican congressman secured a meeting with Lewandowski. In other exchanges, senior staff asked for her sign-off alongside Evans, FEMA’s acting chief.

“She told Karen what to do,” one senior official told .

Evans did not respond to ’s request for comment.

Voorhies was a key player in efforts to slash major emergency preparedness grant programs and strip homeland security funds from some big cities, the official said. And when the department abruptly released more than $5 billion in backlogged disaster funds, she helped coordinate the distribution, according to the official.

previously reported that Noem’s spending restrictions slowed FEMA’s response to the deadly Texas floods last July, when the agency was unable to secure timely approval to preposition search-and-rescue teams, bolster call-center staffing, and provide aerial data to state partners.

Two former senior FEMA officials involved in that response said Voorhies was part of the disruption.

“She slowed everything down and said ‘no’ to everything,” one said. The other said she halted some rapid-response actions, warning that Noem might not want to approve the moves.