America's Talking - FEMA Changes in Senate Bill Filed Before Helene, Milton

Episode Date: October 19, 2024

A proposal senators from Michigan and North Carolina say could be helping victims of natural disasters was already filed before Hurricanes Helene and Milton ruptured lives in the southeastern United States. On Wednesday of the third week since Helene struck the Blue Ridge Mountains in Sen. Thom Tillis’ native North Carolina, FEMA is under attack, the Disaster Survivors Fairness Act of 2024 remains parked in committee since introduction Sept. 17, and another cold night is coming with dozens still missing and 95 dead. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to America in Focus powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulb, Chief Content Officer at Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire Service. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, otherwise known as FEMA, is the agency of the federal government charged with responding to natural disasters such as hurricanes and other emergencies. With two major hurricanes hitting the coastal U.S. in recent weeks, FEMA came under fire recently when Department of Homeland Security. Secretary Alejandra Mayorkas, whom the agency falls under, said it was running out of appropriated

money to respond to such disasters, as it also spent tens of millions of dollars responding to the border crisis. Now we learn that FEMA also spent millions of taxpayer dollars on diversity, equity, and inclusion in initiatives within the agency. Join me to discuss this today is Casey Harper, Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief for the Center Square. Casey, FEMA's core mission is to help American citizens recover from natural disasters. Now we're finding out that the agency is spending significant resources, both in terms of personnel and taxpayer money, on things that have nothing to do with responding to these emergencies. Tell us more. Yeah, what's really interesting, Dan, is unbeknownst to most Americans, that core mission has really changed and drifted. When you look at what

FEMA says about itself, it no longer says that saving Americans lives is its only, it's only, core mission. It also talks about creating a diverse, equitable community as a core mission. I think it uses the word foundational. And it also talks about responding to climate change. So I think many Americans are surprised to see that FEMA appeared a bit distracted when these hurricanes hit and tragically, you know, killed many people and destroyed billions of dollars of property. There's roads that are still shut down and people are still struggling. Of course, their houses are gone. people's lives change forever. But FEMA's working part-time on that issue because they are, as you said, focus on other things. Now, Dan, this is such an interesting story because we were one of

the first people to report on this spending of hundreds of millions of dollars, probably over a billion just since Biden took office on migrants, resettling migrants, making them comfortable, moving them around, you know, finding housing for them. And it's interesting because the mainstream and of course the liberal media outlets just played total defense for the White House on this and claimed that this story was debunked, was fact-checked, untrue, was misleading. And I was kind of befuddled by this day. I mean, the White House called me as well and tried to pressure me into changing things. But just the facts were very clear. I mean, it is true that there are multiple, within an agency the size of FEMA, there are multiple.

multiple, you know, bank accounts or buckets of money. And it's not as if there is, you know, if you, the money, the hundreds of millions to help migrants is a separate bucket than the money to help people with disaster relief. And so that fact is why the White House and some media said this story was debunked. But first off, our initial reporting never said they came from the same source. In fact, it said the opposite. It pointed out on that very fact. But the point is, Dan, and I'll hand it back to you after this. Congress has made a point to appropriate, you know, more than enough money to help migrants, but we don't have more than enough to help those who are struggling with hurricanes. We know hurricane season is coming. So I think it's

really a question of priority and a question of focus for FEMA. And Casey, there's still more than 90 people missing in North Carolina from Hurricane Aline. More than 500 roads are still closed. Of course, Hurricane Milton hit Florida shortly after Hurricane Helene. I guess I just, I'm not understanding it. Why is there not so purpose not to help Americans recover from these devastating natural disasters? Yeah, I mean, this, I know it is surprising to a lot of people, but this is this is not just a FEMA issue. It's happened across the federal government. Essentially, every agency has been co-opted, its time, its resources, and its focus

move towards DEI stuff. And so you have all these bureaucrats, these top well-paid executives within these federal agencies, and their only job is to increase equity. And so it's a very nebulous term. And so what they do is they create papers and they have these long meetings and seminars like they've been having at FEMA where they talk about how we can get, you know, more aid. I mean, this is pretty amazing. But the New York Post reported on this one. But in one example that kind of highlights this change in focus, these FEMA administrators, one in particular is on a Zoom call for a equity.

webinar for LGBT issues. And this federal government employee is talking about how we can transition FEMA away from saving as many people as possible to changing that framework to having more of a helping advance equity. Right. And so it's just a, it's not that they're just trying to hurt people. I think it's really just a change in the focus that, you know, yes, saving lives is important, but if we're not equitable when we do it, who are we really?

And we've seen the same, you mentioned it's not just FEMA. We've seen the same change of priorities in other agencies, including the Department of Defense, which is responsible, obviously, for national security, protecting the homeland from things like this. And out with the border crisis, the, you know, the U.S. orchestrated border crisis, allowing millions. The Center Square has reported exclusively more than 14 million foreign nationals have entered into the U.S. since the Biden-Harris administration. And then these new DEI initiatives, they're just becoming a distraction. Final thought.

Yeah, and a taxpayer-funded distraction. I mean, I don't think that anyone wants FEMA to be racist. of course. And we want, you know, different treatment of different people at FEMA. But this kind of kernel of a good idea has metastasized into this huge, very expensive labyrinth of staff and documents and ideas that is much more about gender and sexuality, actually, than about race these days. And so that is just siphoning off a lot of federal workers' attention and funds.

And they kind of get away with it until something big like this happens. and people say, hey, what's going on over there? And now we know. Thank you for joining us today. Casey, listeners can keep up with this story and more at thecentersquare.com.