by Dick Hall-Sizemore

This whole story about FEMA being broke and, consequently, not being able to assist Helene victims, is another lie propagated by Trump.

First, the Secretary of Homeland Security was referring to the possibility of having enough funding to cover the costs of another major storm this season. Congress just appropriated an additional $20 billion for FEMA in the recently-enacted continuing resolution. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/02/us/politics/fema-funding-shortfall-hurricane-season.html; https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/04/no-biden-didnt-take-fema-relief-money-use-migrants-trump-did/

Second. When pressed about the claim that FEMA used disaster money to help undocumented immigrants, Trump spokesmen pointed to the the Shelters and Services Progam. That is a program within FEMA to “to provide humanitarian services to noncitizen migrants following their release from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).” That is a program within FEMA, separate from disaster response, and with its own authorization and appropriation. FEMA spends those funds in accordance with Congressional direction and approval. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/04/no-biden-didnt-take-fema-relief-money-use-migrants-trump-did/; https://www.fema.gov/grants/shelter-services-program

Three. Presence of FEMA on the ground. Kerry quotes the Federalist complaining about FEMA not pre-staging personnel and supplies in Appalachia. FEMA did its pre-staging in Florida’s Big Bend where the hurricane came ashore. It does not, and cannot, pre-stage along every conceivable route a hurricane might take after coming ashore. In North Carolina, FEMA has provided 25 trailer loads of food and 60 trailer loads of water for state officials to distribute. Most of the complaints seem to be about the slowness of state officials in distributing the supplies. A lot of that can be attributed to the blockage of roads into the region. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/wake-hurricane-helene-questions-emerge-government-warnings-response-rcna173347. Finally, the FEMA director was on the ground in North Carolina on Saturday, Sept. 30, with plans to stay there until the situation stabilized. https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20240930/fema-administrator-deanne-criswell-ground-north-carolina-biden-harris

As a side note, the current Biden critics seem to have overlooked the fact that Trump, while president, actually did divert disaster funding to ICE for enforcement purposes. https://www.politifact.com/article/2019/oct/02/fema-money-reprogrammed-immigration-enforcement-wh/; https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/04/no-biden-didnt-take-fema-relief-money-use-migrants-trump-did/

Addenda: By the way, Gov. Youngkin seems well-satisfied with the response of FEMA. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdqBNW0Ptv8&t=159s