The Federal Emergency Management Agency is facing scrutiny for its spending on diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
Lawmakers at a House Oversight Committee hearing Tuesday pressed FEMA head Deanne Criswell on FEMA’s DEI spending.
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Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) sent a letter to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Deanne Criswell on Monday demanding accountability within the federal agency after it was reported that FEMA workers were advised to discriminate against Trump supporters who needed assistance after Hurricane Helene.
Earlier this month, The Daily Wire reported that a FEMA supervisor ordered workers to bypass the homes of Donald Trump’s supporters as they surveyed the damage caused by Hurricane Milton in Florida.
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It wasn’t as if the Tar Heel state didn’t see Hurricane Helene coming. On Sept. 25, one day before Helene stormed ashore, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency as the storm’s path showed it churning northward toward Appalachia after making landfall in Florida.
Yet that advance declaration was not followed by any state evacuation orders, and the population largely sheltered in place as Helene hit the steep, wooded hills of western North Carolina, squatting over the area, unleashing more than an inch of water an hour for more than a day. The unprecedented, relentless downpour, falling on ground already saturated by rain the week before, tore old pines and hardwoods out by the roots, creating arboreal torpedoes that rocketed down the steep inclines; water that turned photogenic stony creeks into whitewater torrents, lifting ancient streambed boulders and tossing them like chips on to roads and into homes and buildings. The storm left 230 people dead, nearly half of them in North Carolina, with dozens still missing as of early November.
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The state of Florida is suing current and former federal employees personally for allegedly ignoring storm victim households solely because of their political affiliation.
Attorney General Ashley Moody sued current and former Federal Emergency Management Agency officials for “conspiracy to discriminate” against Florida hurricane victims because they expressed support for President-elect Donald Trump.
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) supervisor accused of directing workers to skip hurricane-ravaged homes in Florida with Trump signs, claimed in an interview Monday that the policy was widespread and that she was being scapegoated.
Marn’i Washington was fired on Saturday after whistleblowers told the Daily Wire that at least 20 homes with Trump signs or flags were passed over at the end of October into November due to the guidance, depriving them of the opportunity to qualify for FEMA assistance. She had worked for the agency since 2019.
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Virginia agricultural and forestry small businesses impacted by Hurricane Helene now have another place to turn for help.
Individuals and state and local governments in federally designated disaster zones can already apply to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for assistance, as the president approved a Major Disaster Declaration for the commonwealth within a week of the storm.
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Governor Bill Lee’s Office announced Thursday that $100 million in state funds have been made available for 13 Tennessee counties impacted by Hurricane Helene.
Carter, Claiborne, Cocke, Grainger, Greene, Hamblen, Hawkins, Jefferson, Johnson, Sevier, Sullivan, Unicoi, and Washington counties are eligible to request immediate financial assistance through the new Helene Emergency Assistance Loans (HEAL) Program.
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On the eve of Hurricane Milton’s landfall on a disaster-weary Florida, FEMA, the nation’s disaster relief agency reported a stark shortage of frontline workers available to be deployed: just 8% of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s vaunted Incident Management personnel were still available for deployment.
The stunning declaration in Wednesday’s Daily Operations Briefing exposed the longtime impact of FEMA’s expanding work on unrelated missions like COVID funerals and illegal immigrant services, a crisis created by a worker shortage, a workforce morale issue and the reality of burnout from a increasingly frenetic natural disaster pace.
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In the midst of the last major budget crisis in Washington, Democrats diverted money and the legal authority to put the nation’s disaster relief agency into the business of caring for the millions of illegal immigrants who crossed the border on the Biden-Harris administration’s watch. And now both parties seem to be trying to obfuscate the truth.
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is reportedly turning away donations for victims of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, according to a report from an on-the-ground volunteer who attempted to deliver a caravan of essential supplies to local residents on Saturday.
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) allocated over $1 billion for a migrant assistance program over the past two fiscal years, but now it is running out of cash for disaster relief as Hurricane Helene rages on and more storms loom.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Wednesday that FEMA does not have enough funds to make it through hurricane season, The Associated Press reported. Though resources are running short for Americans displaced by Helene, the agency spent big on a program providing “humanitarian services to noncitizen migrants” after their release from Department of Homeland Security custody.
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Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) launched a new webpage on her official website this week dedicated to providing resource information for Tennesseans impacted by Hurricane Helene.
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Over $47 million in federal taxpayer dollars is going toward service programs in Arizona as the state continues to facilitate migrant requests for transportation to other parts of the country, albeit fewer than before.
The funds are part of $380 million in supplemental funds for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and United States Customs and Border Protection for the Shelter and Services program, which a news release states is used for “food, shelter, clothing, acute medical care, and transportation to noncitizens” that are waiting for their immigration court date in the U.S.
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will provide almost $12 million to the Tipton County Board of Education to rebuild Crestview Elementary School, U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) announced Tuesday.
Cohen represents Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District, which covers approximately half of Tipton County.
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The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Tennessee Department of Revenue have extended the tax filing and payment deadlines for Tennesseans affected by the December 9 severe storms and tornadoes.
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The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development (TDLWD) announced the availability of Disaster Unemployment Assistance for seven Tennessee counties affected by the severe storms and tornadoes.
On December 9, severe thunderstorms and a recorded eight tornadoes ripped through Middle Tennessee, causing six fatalities, dozens of injuries, significant damage to nearly 1,900 homes, and the destruction of over 500 homes.
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is urging Tennessee businesses that suffered damages during the deadly tornadoes that ripped through the state earlier this month to apply for financial relief as soon as possible.
“FEMA may refer survivors of the Dec. 9 tornadoes to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) with information on how to apply for a disaster loan. It’s important to submit the loan application as soon as possible,” the organization said in a Wednesday release. “SBA disaster loans are the largest source of federal disaster recovery funds for survivors. SBA offers long-term, low-interest disaster loans to businesses of all sizes, private nonprofit organizations, homeowners and renters.”
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Four Tennessee counties affected by severe storms in July have been approved to receive assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Public Assistance (PA) program, the federal agency announced this week.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine requested on Monday that President Joe Biden issue a Major Presidential Disaster Declaration for damage resulting from the catastrophic East Palestine train derailment that occurred earlier this year.
This follows two groups of protestors, Unity Council for the East Palestine Train Derailment and River Valley Organizing, pressuring the Ohio Governor to submit a disaster declaration before the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Monday deadline.
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Protesters interrupted a session of the Ohio House this week demanding that Governor Mike DeWine declare a state of emergency in East Palestine as a result of the catastrophic train derailment earlier this year.
The group’s Unity Council for the East Palestine Train Derailment and River Valley Organizing gathered to pressure the Ohio governor to submit a disaster declaration before the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) July 3rd deadline. Also, the groups protested in the Rotunda at the Ohio Capitol Building and marched into DeWine’s offices.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine submitted a letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) requesting a second extension on the deadline for Ohio to request a major disaster declaration for damage resulting from the catastrophic East Palestine train derailment which occurred earlier this year.
The FEMA website states that a major disaster declaration provides a wide range of federal assistance programs for individuals and public infrastructure, including funds for both emergency and permanent work.
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The American Red Cross has maps and guides for migrants to make the dangerous journeys to the U.S.-Mexico border, according to documents exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The map, which is part of a packet stamped with the International Committee of the Red Cross and American Red Cross logos, shows a list of resources, including hotels, clinics and shelters where migrants can get support in Mexico and Central America. The maps include clearly defined lines leading to cities along the U.S. border. The organization also has a guide to “self care” along the journey, which includes tips on how to survive the desert and disease, how to safely jump on trains, and how to obtain contraceptives.
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A spokesperson with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 5 told The Ohio Star on Monday that the Fire Chief of the East Palestine Fire Department was the individual who ordered the controlled burn following the catastrophic train derailment on February 3rd.
“EPA did not order the controlled burn. The local fire chief was the incident commander who made the decision in consultation with Norfolk Southern, local law enforcement, and response officials from Ohio,” the EPA spokesperson told The Star.
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Tennessee residents have received $81.9 million in funeral expense assistance through COVID-19 funeral reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Just short of half of those payments were made this year. As of January, FEMA had sent Tennessee $47 million in assistance.
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U.S. President Joe Biden has appointed two federal officials as the administration’s monkeypox coordinators, the White House said Tuesday.
Biden named Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Robert Fenton as the White House National Monkeypox Response Coordinator and Dr. Demetre Daskalakis as the Deputy Coordinator.
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The omicron variant may be nearing its peak in some states, but across the country it’s produced a dizzying array of conflicting signals on whether the nation should remain under a COVID national emergency or move on to an endemic “new normal.”
Comedian Bill Maher’s “I don’t want to live in your mask-paranoid world anymore” monologue went viral last week, just days after the Atlantic, the standard-bearer journal for the liberal intelligentsia, ran a story headlined: “COVID Parenting Has Passed the Point of Absurdity.” Accompanying the article was a black-and-white photo of a woman frozen in a more desperate and primal state of panic than the subject of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.”
Omicron, for most people without co-morbidities, produces much milder symptoms than do the coronavirus’s previous variants, but it’s far more infectious, racing through schools, shutting down classrooms and forcing parents to consult their district’s ever-shifting COVID “decision trees” on a seemingly daily basis.
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is set to dole out thousands of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in Cleveland, according to Friday reports.
“A mass coronavirus vaccination center will open on March 17 at Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center, with the capability to vaccinate 6,000 people a day,” Cleveland.com reported.
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Ohio will now mandate public colleges and universities to create non-congregate sheltering space for quarantining coronavirus patients.
Ohio Department of Health (ODH) Interim Director Lance Himes issued the order Sunday “to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” alongside Governor Mike DeWine and Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted.
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) approved for Minnesotans to receive $300 in weekly unemployment benefits this fall. FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor issued the grant through the Lost Wages Supplemental Payment Assistance program.
The approval comes one day after Governor Tim Walz announced his decision to apply for additional unemployment payments. Walz explained this was a necessary decision based on the continued COVID-19 mandates.
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The Michigan National Guard is helping Detroit prepare additional space to care for COVID-19 patients.
About 20 members of the Michigan National Guard will help the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) form a Federal Medical Station (FMS) at TCF Center in Detroit from Tuesday through today.
Those members will manage inventory to prepare for the care of those with COVID-19.
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Reuters The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) exposed 2.3 million disaster survivors to possible identity theft and fraud by sharing sensitive personal information with an outside company, according to an internal government watchdog. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) said FEMA had shared financial records and other sensitive information of people who had participated in an emergency shelter program after being displaced by hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and the California wildfires in 2017. The Inspector General’s office said FEMA had shared participants’ home addresses and bank account information with the contractor, along with necessary information like their names and birthdates. That “has placed approximately 2.3 million disaster survivors at increased risk of identity theft and fraud,” the Inspector General’s office said in a report. The name of the contactor was redacted. In a statement released on Friday, FEMA spokeswoman Lizzie Litzow said the agency had found no indication to suggest survivor data had been “compromised.” She said the agency has removed unnecessary information from the contractor’s computer systems. But FEMA’s review only found that the contractor’s computer systems had not been breached within the past 30 days because it did not keep…
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by Natalia Castro Introduction Corey Coleman spent years creating a toxic work environment on the taxpayer’s dime. Despite receiving complaints regarding Coleman’s hostility toward female employees and inappropriate behavior since 2015, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) maintained Coleman’s employment until he chose to resign in April 2018. Coleman, who led the agency’s personnel department, made the decision to resign to avoid testifying as part of an internal investigation. [1] While this is one instance of abuse, stories like Coleman’s permeate the U.S. civil service industry. Our civil service is comprised of over 2.79 million employees working to run the “fourth arm” of the U.S. government: the bureaucracy. [2] Career bureaucrats implement federal policy via central offices in Washington, D.C. and regional offices across the country. As an unelected body, these workers are not accountable to the American people and due to the structure of our civil service are seemingly unaccountable to anyone. This system encourages poor performance, breeding corruption, waste, and abuse. Historical context The bureaucracy was created to implement the laws as written by Congress, but since its establishment government leaders have feared that a partisan civil service would serve its own interests rather than the interests…
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