FIRST ON FOX: A gaggle of senators led by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., is warning the Federal Emergency Administration Company’s “entanglement” with the southern border could have restricted its effectiveness in dealing with emergencies – simply because the Biden administration is pushing again on claims that catastrophe aid and resettling of migrants are related.
“FEMA’s continued entanglement in DHS’s efforts to answer the border disaster may influence its readiness and emergency response mission,” the Republican lawmakers write. “Quite than guaranteeing FEMA is prepared to answer hurricanes and different emergencies, FEMA has been pulled right into a border disaster mission.”
Within the letter obtained by Fox Information Digital, the lawmakers expressed concern “on the influence of the continued border disaster on [FEMA’s] readiness.” They cited remarks this week by DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warning that FEMA “doesn’t have the funds to make it by the season” and his requires Congress to convene a particular session to think about supplemental funding within the wake of the devastation brought on by Hurricane Helene.
FEMA SAYS IT HAS FUNDS NEEDED FOR ‘IMMEDIATE RESPONSE AND RECOVERY’
A rescue group paddles down the Swannanoa River on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. The remnants of Hurricane Helene brought about widespread flooding, downed timber, and energy outages in western North Carolina. (Travis Lengthy/The Information & Observer/Tribune Information Service by way of Getty Pictures)
Different lawmakers on the letter are Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Roger Marshall, R-Kansas. Lankford can be the rating member on the Subcommittee on Authorities Operations and Border Administration.
Mayorkas and FEMA have additionally stated they’ve sufficient funding to satisfy “speedy wants,” however Mayorkas has stated that present funding by persevering with decision doesn’t present stability.
“We’ve got the speedy wants proper now. On a seamless decision, we have now funds, however that isn’t a secure supply of provide, if you’ll,” he stated. “This can be a multibillion-dollar, multiyear restoration.”
Amid these remarks, plenty of conservative lawmakers and officers have pointed to roughly $650 million spent by FEMA on grants to non-profits and native authorities to resettle and support migrants who’ve come throughout the southern border. The funding for the Shelter and Companies Program (SSP) is congressionally appropriated and requires FEMA to make use of funding shifted over from Customs and Border Safety (CBP). It’s additionally a fraction of the greater than $30 billion in FEMA’s funds.
DHS and the White Home have pushed again in opposition to these linking this system, referred to as the Shelter and Companies Program (SSP), to the alleged shortfall in FEMA funding.
“No catastrophe aid funding in any respect was used to assist migrants housing and providers. None. At. All,” White Home Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates stated in a memo on Friday. “The truth is, the funding for communities to assist migrants is straight appropriated by Congress to CBP, and is merely administered by FEMA. The funding is on no account associated to FEMA’s response and restoration efforts.”
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“These claims are utterly false,” a DHS spokesperson advised Fox Information Digital. “As Secretary Mayorkas stated, FEMA has the mandatory assets to satisfy the speedy wants related to Hurricane Helene and different disasters. The Shelter and Companies Program (SSP) is a totally separate, appropriated grant program that was approved and funded by Congress and isn’t related in any manner with FEMA’s disaster-related authorities or funding streams.”
Nonetheless, the letter from senators appears to be like past the separation of the funds and factors to a attainable broader stress on FEMA from the disaster. They level to the mobilization of FEMA to handle a surge in unaccompanied minors throughout the southern border in March 2021 at the start of the disaster.
WASHINGTON – JANUARY 23: Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., speaks to reporters as he arrives for a vote within the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, January 23, 2024. (Invoice Clark/CQ-Roll Name, Inc by way of Getty Pictures)
In addition they cite congressional briefings that discovered that, forward of the tip of the Title 42 public well being order, the administration put a senior FEMA official as senior coordinating officers for the response to a attainable surge on the border.
In addition they say that funds requests to Congress requested it to proceed funding FEMA’s border-related work: “FEMA’s efforts responding to the border disaster may have been rather more restricted in case your Administration would have as a substitute used your authorities to safe the border.”
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The lawmakers ask what number of full-time staff from FEMA have been transferred to border-related mission duties or joined a volunteer power, how a lot FEMA cash has been reprogrammed to a border-related mission, and if it has made any evaluation on the influence of FEMA’s engagement on the border. Fox reached out to the White Home, DHS and FEMA.
It comes because the influence of the border disaster continues to be a prime subject forward of the November election. Republicans have accused the Biden administration of fueling the border disaster with “open borders” insurance policies and ending Trump-era insurance policies. The Biden administration has accused Republicans of blocking the passage of a bipartisan border safety invoice, which Lankford helped write, for political functions.
