The acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency is pushing back on criticisms of the federal response to the central Texas floods that killed at least 136 people.

Urban Search and Rescue Chief Ken Pagurek quit over a new policy that led to delays in FEMA's response to the flooding in Texas on July 4, sources said.

Pagurek told colleagues he was frustrated by the Department of Homeland Security's efforts to dismantle FEMA and by new hurdles that slowed the agency's response to the catastrophic flooding in Central Texas earlier this month,