Republican members of the U.S. Home Committee on Homeland Safety have launched an investigation into the alleged misuse of Federal Emergency Administration Company funds by Division of Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
DHS, which has oversight of FEMA, has directed that billions of {dollars} of FEMA funds be used to pay for meals, housing, transportation and different companies for unlawful border crossers.
FEMA lately additionally has prioritized range, fairness and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, The Middle Sq. reported.
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The committee is demanding solutions from Mayorkas after on Oct. 2 he mentioned FEMA “doesn’t have the funds, to make it via the [hurricane] season.”
Mayorkas made the remarks after the Class 4 Hurricane Helene made landfall on Sept. 26 and proceeded to trigger destruction for 500 miles, inflicting an estimated $47.5 billion in damages in 16 states, excluding lack of life. Helene notably devastated parts of the states of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Hurricane Milton, a class 3 hurricane, subsequent hit Florida on Oct. 8, inflicting as much as $2.5 billion in agricultural damages alone, in keeping with state estimates.
At an Oct. 11 press convention, Mayorkas mentioned greater than $350 million in FEMA help was distributed to assist Helene survivors, “with tens of millions extra going out every single day.”
By Oct. 16, the White Home introduced the Biden-Harris administration had accredited greater than $1.8 billion in help for hurricane restoration efforts, with greater than $911 million in already accredited help for Helene survivors. Practically 8,000 federal personnel “stay on the bottom working side-by-side with state and native officers to assist survivors with restoration and rebuilding,” the White Home mentioned.
Home committee Republicans mentioned in a letter to Mayorkas that any FEMA “funding shortfall is extraordinarily disconcerting” as a result of People impacted by the lethal hurricanes “face dire circumstances whereas the Biden-Harris administration could have unwisely and irresponsibly centered funding requests for different FEMA actions.” Additionally they mentioned Congress had met or exceeded appropriation requests for FEMA’s Catastrophe Aid Fund, with $61.2 billion allotted in fiscal years 2023 and 2024.
Scrutiny comes after in fiscal years 2023 and 2024, FEMA disbursed greater than $1.4 billion of taxpayer cash via grants to states, native governments and nongovernmental organizations to pay for companies for unlawful border crossers via its Emergency Meals and Shelter Program-Humanitarian Program (EFSP) and Shelter and Companies Program (SSP).
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Congress created the EFSP in 1983, later licensed it underneath a 1987 homeless help act, and has funded it since fiscal 1995, in keeping with the Congressional Analysis Service. Funds are presupposed to be prioritized to assist the homeless, unemployed and extra just lately have been prioritized for “communities most affected by the inflow of migrants,” CRS says.
Below the Trump administration, Congress put aside $25 million, 83.3%, of the EFSP funding via supplemental appropriation for southern border state native recipient organizations (LROs).
A March 2023 DHS Inspector Normal report discovered that underneath the Biden-Harris administration, the LROs weren’t all the time utilizing the latest batch of $110 million in funds they acquired as meant by statute. The LROs “didn’t all the time present the required receipts or documentation for claimed reimbursements” and “have been unable to supply supporting documentation” for the way the cash was spent, the Workplace of the Inspector Normal discovered.
By statute, six personal nonprofit organizations govern the allocation of EFSP funds: the American Crimson Cross, Catholic Charities U.S.A., the Council of Jewish Federations, Inc., the Nationwide Council of Church buildings of Christ in the united statesA., the Salvation Military, and the United Means of America, CRS notes.
Congress continues to fund DHS and FEMA applications, together with within the newest Sept. 26 persevering with decision, allocating $20 billion to FEMA’s Catastrophe Aid Fund. A current FEMA advisory states that doing so enabled it to “start processing obligations of roughly $9 billion for over 3,000 paused tasks” to assist “communities, faculties, and hospitals throughout the nation get well from and mitigate towards disasters.”
“As a result of uncertainty of receiving further funding, and if present spending charges maintain, the company tasks it’s going to reimplement INF earlier than the tip of the calendar yr,” FEMA mentioned. It’s referring to Instant Wants Funding restrictions it put in place “to protect crucial sources mandatory for lifesaving and life sustaining actions towards a quickly depleting Catastrophe Aid Fund stability.”
In the latest omnibus handed by Congress, “roughly $650 million was directed away from U.S. Customs and Border Safety to FEMA to fund the SSP,” the committee says.
“In final yr’s supplemental spending request alone, which Home Republicans roundly rejected, the Biden-Harris administration requested for $1.4 billion in new funds for the SSP,” the committee mentioned.
The committee gave Mayorkas a deadline of Oct. 25 to supply info it requested associated to FEMA catastrophe restoration efforts, together with the EFSP and SSP.
Syndicated with permission from The Middle Sq..
