Hurricane season bears down as bipartisan lawmakers push to detach FEMA from 'partisan' DHS

[Conservative Perspective]

Hurricane season bears down as bipartisan lawmakers push to detach FEMA from 'partisan' DHS

Reps. Jared Moskowitz and Garret Graves have teamed up to push Congress on a bipartisan bill to elevate FEMA to a Cabinet-level position.

Source: Hurricane season bears down as bipartisan lawmakers push to detach FEMA from 'partisan' DHS

[Brent]

For example, FEMA denies rumors that it distributes aid based on demographic characteristics. But FEMA's own website says otherwise. The agency considers factors such as race, ethnicity, and English proficiency when granting aid. This reflects the Biden-Harris administration's insistence since the very first day of the administration that "equity" would be its guiding principle.

This has been especially detrimental in North Carolina, where FEMA's DEI-based formulas factor racial and minority status into "social susceptibility," a main component of the National Risk Index score. This score helps FEMA determine which areas to prioritize for aid, and it could put predominantly white areas at a significant disadvantage.

Consider places like Buncombe County. Hurricane Helene killed at least 57 people there, the largest death toll of any single county that we know of so far. But because Buncombe County has a nearly 90% white population, it has a "relatively low" NRI score, which could help explain why the agency's aid hasn't arrived in a timely manner.

FEMA also claims it has not allocated any money to illegal aliens over American citizens. FEMA's "fact-check" page states: "Disaster Relief Fund money has not been diverted to other, non-disaster related efforts."

But this claim is a dodge at best. It does not address the main concern: that this administration has granted over $1 billion to organizations that provide illegal aliens with transportation and housing services, instead of using that money for disaster relief. FEMA's effort to sidestep the truth by citing a technicality — the fact that disaster relief and illegal alien services grants are separate funds — is shameful. Americans deserve better.