Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) announced on Friday that whistleblowers have revealed the Biden-Harris administration’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has “wasted” and “misappropriated funds” and is “exacerbating the emergency” caused by Hurricane Helene.
In a letter sent on Friday to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Gaetz noted, “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 mismanagement issues. FEMA has wasted taxpayer funds, misappropriated funds, and left other federal, state, and local responders without deployment orders on the ground.”
Gaetz told Mayorkas that his office had confirmed that “hundreds, if not thousands” of U.S. service members had been deployed by the Department of Defense to the state of North Carolina and have “sat idle, waiting for FEMA.”
The Republican representative added, “We have confirmed FEMA employees deployed, on the clock, awaiting orders in hotels. FEMA pre-disaster aid was withheld, exacerbating the emergency.”
In his letter to Mayorkas, Gaetz claimed that while the Department of Homeland Security secretary said on Thursday that FEMA “does not have enough funds to make it through the [hurricane] season,” reports show that FEMA has “spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on migrants” due to the Biden-Harris administration’s open border policies.
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Gaetz explained that the Biden-Harris administration has prioritized illegal immigrants instead of “prioritizing funding for Americans impacted by disasters” and claimed that FEMA funds have been used by non-governmental organizations to purchase airline tickets for migrants.
“The aftermath of Hurricane Helene is a major disaster, and your waste and unpreparedness are leaving Americans in distress—unable to access food, water, or medicine—and expecting help, with none coming,” Gaetz wrote.
According to The Daily Mail, despite the Biden-Harris administration’s claims that FEMA lacks the funding it currently needs, Congress passed an additional $20 billion in funding last week. The outlet noted that whistleblowers have claimed that while the government has received additional funding, FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene has been slow and largely ineffective, leaving hundreds of Americans dead or stranded.
In Friday’s letter, Gaetz asked Mayorkas to reveal what portion of FEMA’s total budget for Fiscal Year 2024 was spent on American citizens and what portion of the budget was spent on non-citizens.
The Republican representative added, “In FY 2024, what portion of funds in the Disaster Relief Fund have been spent on non-disaster-relief programs, such as providing services to illegal aliens or providing routine training to FEMA employees authorized out of general appropriations?”
