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Billions of dollars in contracts and grants have stalled at the agency in recent months pending approval by Noem and the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, as the Trump administration seeks to rein in wasteful spending and shift more responsibility for disaster response to states.

When DHS partially shut down last month, Noem directed FEMA to scale back to “bare-minimum, life-saving operations only.” In a follow-up email to the agency’s regional leaders, Karen Evans wrote that “all activities at FEMA need to cease.”

The email, which CNN obtained, carved out four exceptions: work tied to President Trump’s State of the Union address, immediate response to the recent winter storms, meetings connected to the World Cup and Olympics and “Nuclear activities.”

The directives were unusual, officials inside the agency said, as much of FEMA’s work typically continues uninterrupted during government shutdowns because it’s funded through the Disaster Relief Fund – a separate pot of money Congress provides for disasters and emergencies.

Nonetheless, work stopped immediately for some workers, seven FEMA officials in various parts of the country told CNN.