U.S. Rep. Dale Strong (R-Monrovia) recently joined other Republican members of the House Homeland Security Committee in demanding answers from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for poorly prioritizing federal funds in the aftermath of Hurricanes Milton and Helene.
After back-to-back hurricanes rocked the southern part of the country, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been criticized for reporting a lack of funding for the remainder of hurricane season.
Congress funded FEMA's disaster relief fund at $20 billion last month. However, dozens of Republican members of Congress have pointed to the hundreds of millions in FEMA funds spent by the Biden administration to aid migrants and illegal aliens through the Shelter and Services Program (SSP)
The SSP is a separate fund from FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund (DRF). However, in a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Strong and others on the committee are questioning the Biden administration’s seeming shift in allocating funds for migrants instead of aiding in disaster relief for Americans.
“FEMA operates the [DRF], the federal government’s primary fund for disaster relief activities,” the letter reads. “Throughout the Biden-Harris administration, Congress consistently met or exceeded, through supplemental appropriations, the President’s budget requests for disaster relief. In fiscal year (FY) 2023 and FY2024, Congress appropriated approximately $61.2 billion for the DRF through a combination of both annual and supplemental appropriations. The Committee, however, is troubled that the Department and FEMA may not have properly apprised Congress of its need for additional disaster relief funds while simultaneously requesting large sums of monies to fund FEMA’s [SSP], a grant program to fund nonfederal entities for shelter and services provided to migrants encountered by the Department, including illegal aliens.”
The letter draws a contrast between the $300 million distributed through the SSP program versus the $355 million given in relief for Hurricane Helene.
“While the Committee understands that there is no intermingling of funds between the DRF and SSP, the Department’s priorities for limited resources provided by taxpayers to the Department should first and foremost serve Americans,” the letter says.
To further its investigation of allegedly lopsided priorities on the part of the Biden administration, the Homeland Security Committee demanded the following information from Mayorkas:
1. All documents and communications between or among any FEMA, Department, and Executive Office of the President employees or contractors, including but not limited to, e-mail, text messages, internal memoranda, and guidance, referring or relating to the prioritization of funding for the Shelter and Services Program or Emergency Food and Shelter Program-Humanitarian Relief, from Oct. 1, 2022 to the present.
2. All documents and communications between or among any FEMA, Department, and Executive Office of the President employees or contractors, including but not limited to, e-mail, text messages, internal memoranda, and guidance, referring or relating to the funding of the Disaster Relief Fund from Oct. 1, 2022 to the present
3. Documents sufficient to identify each entity that has received a Shelter and Services Program or Emergency Food and Shelter Program-Humanitarian Relief grant since Oct. 1, 2022.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.
Don't miss out! Subscribe to our newsletter and get our top stories every weekday morning.
