FEMA withheld pre-disaster money before Hurricane Helene and has been painfully slow in issuing deployment orders for first responders, several whistleblowers allege in a damning new letter.
The explosive allegations of mismanagement at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) come just days after the agency took a beating because its boss, Alejandro Mayorkas, admitted he won’t be able to foot the bill for this historic hurricane season. .
Now FEMA whistleblowers, including state and local ones in emergency management roles, are telling Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., that the department has wasted and misappropriated funds in the wake of Helene, which is “exacerbating the emergency “.
Additionally, “hundreds, if not thousands” of first responders and service members have been “without deployment orders,” some waiting in hotels while others “have remained idle” while Americans across the Southeast are in dire need, the reports allege. complainants.
An aerial view of flood damage caused by Hurricane Helene along the Swannanoa River on October 3, 2024 in Asheville, North Carolina. FEMA and other emergency management whistleblowers allege that the agency wasted funds, withheld pre-disaster aid and was slow to deploy first responders and service members to help with recovery efforts.
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“This news comes after FEMA has spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on migrants due to Border Czar Kamala Harris’ open border instead of prioritizing funding for Americans affected by disasters,” Gaetz wrote in a letter scathing to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Second. Mayorkas on Friday.
“My office has been in contact with whistleblowers in numerous emergency management functions at the federal, state and local levels, and they all point to the same critical issues of mismanagement.”
“FEMA has wasted taxpayer funds, misappropriated funds, and left other federal, state, and local first responders without field orders,” wrote Gaetz, a close ally of former President Donald Trump.
With more than 200 Americans dead and the agency out of money, FEMA’s huge budget for illegal immigrants has come under scrutiny as a possible way to provide support to devastated American citizens.
Over the past two years, FEMA has provided more than one billion taxpayer dollars to specifically support illegal immigrants with housing.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., sent a letter to DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas (above) on Friday describes allegations of mismanagement at FEMA by agency whistleblowers
But now there is no money to help the 150,000 American citizens who applied for federal assistance after Hurricane Helene damaged their homes.
“FEMA does not have the funds to endure the season,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted Wednesday.
But just last week Congress passed a funding bill for an additional $20 billion for the anticipated hurricane season.
And whistleblowers allege that the department, despite receiving recent funding, has been slow and ineffective in its response to Hurricane Helene.
“As my office reported and confirmed, hundreds, if not thousands, of service members were deployed by the Department of Defense to North Carolina and were left idle, waiting for FEMA,” Gaetz writes.
‘We have confirmed that FEMA employees are deployed, punctually, awaiting orders at the hotels. FEMA aid before the disaster was withheld, exacerbating the emergency.
The Republican demands to know how much money DHS and FEMA spend on non-citizens versus American citizens.
Migrants seeking asylum in the United States wait at the border in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on March 19, 2024.
At least 200 people died in six states as a result of the powerful hurricane that made landfall as a Category 4
This aerial photograph taken on September 27, 2024 shows a flooded street after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Steinhatchee, Florida.
Immigrants wait to be processed at a US Border Patrol transit center after crossing the border from Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, on December 20, 2023.
‘Of the total FEMA budget for fiscal year 2024, what portion of the funds can be guaranteed to have been spent solely on U.S. citizens, and what portion of the funds were or could have been spent on non-citizens?’ Gaetz asks.
‘In fiscal year 2024, how much of the Disaster Relief Fund funds have been spent on non-disaster relief programs, such as providing services to illegal aliens or providing routine training to authorized FEMA employees at a fee? to general assignments?’
He demanded answers from Mayorkas before October 11.
