FEMA Whistleblowers Say Agency Wildly Mismanaged
Whistleblowers at the Federal Emergency Management Agency have come forward in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene to accuse the agency of misappropriating funds and generally mismanaging its responsibilities.
This is according to a letter sent by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose department includes FEMA.
FEMA has come under fire for its response to Hurricane Helene, which ravaged North Carolina, Georgia, and other states and left over 200 dead.
Mayorkas said in an interview Wednesday that FEMA “does not have the funds” to address the rest of the hurricane season.
Gaetz wrote in his letter, which he also posted on X: “Numerous whistleblowers came forward to my office this week to sound the alarm on FEMA’s severe mismanagement issues, which have left first responders on the ground to assist with Hurricane Helene recovery efforts without deployment orders.”
Gaetz said FEMA’s mismanagement impeded the federal government’s response to the hurricane.
“FEMA has wasted taxpayer funds, misappropriated funds, and left other federal, state, and local responders without deployment orders on the ground,” Gaetz wrote to Mayorkas. “As reported and further confirmed by my office, hundreds if not thousands of service members were deployed by the Department of Defense to North Carolina and have sat idle, waiting for FEMA.”
The Florida Republican also wrote that FEMA had deployed its own employees who were simply waiting in hotels and that pre-disaster aid is being withheld.
dailysignal.com
Tom |
