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.
Gaetz wrote in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Friday that” My company has been in touch with reporters in various emergency-management works at the federal, state, and local amounts, and they all point to the same essential incompetence problems. FEMA has wasted taxpayer money, misused resources, and left another federal, state, and local firefighters without implementation directions on the ground”.
Gaetz informed Mayorkas that his company had confirmed that “hundreds, if no thousands” of American service members had” sat idle, waiting for FEMA” and had been” confirmed by the Department of Defense” to the state of North Carolina.
The Republican member added,” We have confirmed FEMA staff deployed, on the calendar, awaiting orders in hotels. FEMA pre-disaster assistance 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 claimed that non-governmental companies have used FEMA funds to purchase airline reservations for workers and that the Biden-Harris leadership has prioritized illegal immigrants rather than “prioritizing funding for Americans impacted by tragedies.”
” 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 despite receiving additional funding, FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene was slow and largely ineffective, leaving hundreds of Americans dead or stranded.
Gaetz contacted Mayorkas on Friday to request information on how much of the total budget for Fiscal Year 2024 was spent on American citizens and how much of the budget was spent on non-citizens.
What portion of the Disaster Relief Fund’s funds have been used for non-disaster-relief programs, such as providing services to illegal aliens or providing routine training to FEMA employees authorized out of general appropriations, the Republican representative added?