FEMA Whistleblowers Say Agency Wildly Mismanaged

Jarrett Stepman (Daily Signal)

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.

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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.

“It is also public that NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] have purchased airline tickets for migrants through the use of FEMA funds,” Gaetz wrote to Mayorkas.

According to The Federalist, FEMA has spent more than $1 billion since 2022 addressing the border and illegal immigration crisis.

The New York Post reported that DHS allocated “$640.9 million this year in FEMA-administered funds to aid state and local governments coping with the influx” of illegal aliens and asylum-seekers. Mayorkas said the money couldn’t be used for hurricane relief efforts because it was specifically authorized by Congress to address the illegal immigration crisis.

Others have warned that FEMA was prioritizing illegal immigrants over its core purpose.

Heritage Foundation senior research fellow Simon Hankinson wrote in September 2023 that “the Department of Homeland Security, in its fiscal year 2024 budget … asked for a directly appropriated $83.5 million for FEMA Shelter and Services Program grants to ‘nonprofits and local entities to provide support to noncitizens released from DHS custody.’”

Hankinson also wrote last year that “DHS asked for $800 million—$650 million more than last year—’for communities to support migrants who have been released from DHS custody pending the outcome of their immigration proceedings.’”