FEMA’s administrator heard two words from a Florida lawmaker that left her scared

Congress is raking the FEMA administrator over the coals. 

A day of reckoning is coming for the embattled agency. 

And FEMA’s administrator heard two words from a Florida lawmaker that left her scared. 

FEMA administrator grilled during a House Oversight hearing 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is facing multiple Congressional investigations after its response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton became its own disaster. 

FEMA’s response to Helene was slow or nonexistent for a hurricane that became the deadliest to hit the country in this century behind Hurricane Katrina. 

 The trouble for the agency continued after a FEMA supervisor was caught instructing disaster relief workers to skip homes in Lake Placid, Florida that had Trump signs or flags. 

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell made the first of what is expected to be many appearances before Congress about the scandals plaguing her agency.

She was grilled during a hearing before the House Oversight Committee about FEMA’s response and discrimination against Trump supporters. 

Representative Byron Donalds (R-FL) said that FEMA should be “completely revamped” after it botched the response to the recent hurricanes. 

Donalds represents a House District in Southwest Florida that was damaged by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. 

“The No. 1 thing that hurts FEMA’s reputation is the fact that so many citizens are denied when they apply the first time they come through the FEMA portal,” Donalds said. “And if they have to go through congressional offices to get help… if that is going to be the protocol for our citizens to get help, from the emergency management agency, then it needs to be completely revamped.”

FEMA instructed storm victims in flood-ravaged Western North Carolina after Helene to apply through the FEMA online portal when cell service and internet access were knocked out in the region. 

FEMA administrator denies political bias against Trump supporters 

FEMA supervisor Marn’i Washington was fired after internal communications exposed that she ordered homes that showed support for Trump skipped. 

Washington claimed that she was acting on orders that she was given. 

Donalds asked Criswell if discrimination against Trump supporters was part of FEMA policy. 

“There is nothing in any of our policies, our training, or our information sent out to field workers, to avoid any home for whatever reason, especially not because of a political affiliation,” Criswell claimed. “The actions of this one individual are not representative of the work that we do at FEMA.”

Donalds noted a story in the New York Post that cited an anonymous FEMA official who told the paper that it is an “open secret” the agency is discriminating against Trump supporters. 

Criswell claimed allegations of widespread discrimination were the subject of an internal FEMA investigation. 

“You told me at the beginning of this questioning that there is nothing in your policies that would dictate that this is to occur, yet you have one official who was fired, who said it does occur,” Donalds said. “You have another official under your purview… talking to the press, that it does occur, but you can’t verify to this committee that these practices do or do not occur.”

FEMA will be under the microscope of Congress until major changes are made to the agency.