The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s acting leader has adamantly defended the federal government’s response to historic flooding in Texas earlier this month, saying lawmakers’ attacks on the agency’s actions were unwarranted.

An elite team of Hoosier first responders returned home Monday following deployment to flood-devastated Kerr County, Texas.

The homeland security secretary said a report that thousands of calls to a disaster hotline went unanswered because of staffing cuts was “false.”