Hearing

Witness List:

(Updated Witness List)

Panel I 

• The Honorable Chuck Edwards, Member of Congress, 11^th District of North Carolina, U.S. House of Representatives | Written Testimony
• The Honorable Kathy Castor, Member of Congress, 14^th District of Florida, U.S. House of Representatives | Written Testimony

Panel II

• The Honorable Deanne Criswell, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency, United States Department of Homeland Security | Written Testimony

Opening remarks, as prepared, of Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO) and Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management Subcommittee Chairman Scott Perry (R-PA):

Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves

This hearing comes at a critical time. We are being told a supplemental appropriations bill is needed after Congress recently appropriated $20 billion to the Disaster Relief Fund. There have been ongoing concerns about how long FEMA takes to provide aid and rebuild after a disaster.

Further, this committee has highlighted concerns that the Biden Administration has prioritized equity, climate change, and assistance to migrants over disaster victims and readiness and response efforts. And then we add on top of all of this the recent shocking reports that FEMA workers purposefully avoided hurricane impacted homes that displayed signs in support of President Trump. Each of these reports alone is unacceptable – but combined they show a pattern of incompetence from the agency.

For more than a decade, I have sponsored and supported numerous pieces of legislation aimed at speeding up FEMA aid, cutting bureaucracy and red tape, and creating more transparency. But it seems like despite these efforts, FEMA somehow finds new ways to make the recovery process more difficult for impacted communities.

The agency is accountable directly to the President, and so the buck stops with the President regarding the constant mismanagement and lack of focus on its core mission.

I trust that under new leadership, we will finally be able to reform FEMA in a way that works to support all Americans and refocus the agency on what it is supposed to do – help people prepare for and recover from disasters without regard for an individual’s political views.

Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management Subcommittee Chairman Scott Perry

I want to thank our witnesses for being here today to discuss FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene and other 2024 disasters, as well as the broader impact of FEMA’s disaster recovery policies on the agency’s response efforts.

First and foremost, our hearts go out to everyone affected by these disasters. Communities impacted by these storms are clearly facing a long and difficult road to recovery.

While we might not always agree on who should be the tip of the spear when it comes to emergency response, disaster survivors deserve to know what help is available, and taxpayer resources intended to provide for their recovery should be used effectively and fairly. Just last week, there were extremely concerning press reports from Lake Placid, Florida, that FEMA skipped over homes impacted by Hurricane Milton that displayed signs supporting President-Elect Trump.

While the FEMA Administrator quickly responded that the employee was terminated, it is very clear from a recent interview that the employee believes she was carrying out direction from the agency and suggested that this “avoidance” tactic occurred not only in Florida but also in the Carolinas.

Last month, while FEMA was quick to issue a rumor control page arguing that criticisms of the response would discourage people from applying for aid, FEMA workers themselves were apparently avoiding disaster victims. Let me be clear – the thousands of men and women who deploy to help communities across this nation serve an important role for the American people. I am not disparaging those workers.

To the contrary – it seems this particular worker believes she is being treated like the scapegoat and, if that is the case, more people at FEMA must be held accountable. In response to these claims, the Committee sent a letter to the Administrator last week requesting information and documents pertaining to the allegations of this FEMA employee. I ask unanimous consent that this letter be included in the record. I hope we will get responses to the questions posed in that letter and that the Administrator is prepared to discuss the issue today.

More broadly, as we assess FEMA’s response to recent disasters, I believe there are other critical areas we also need to address. First, aid needs to reach impacted communities quickly, without unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles. Early on, there were reports from North Carolina residents concerned about FEMA’s slow reaction pace to the storm and feeling as though they were left to fend for themselves. In fact, there are still areas FEMA has not reached to assess damage. I cannot wrap my head around the fact that the federal agency charged with leading our responses to disasters cannot seem to maneuver to homes in the mountains of western North Carolina.

Then we learned how long of a process it’s been for FEMA to deliver temporary housing trailers to communities in western North Carolina living without power and heat. Clearly something is wrong with FEMA’s process.

I hope that my Congressional colleagues on our first panel will provide us with candid insights into FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene, the successes you’ve seen, and the areas where there is cause for concern.

In past disasters, we’ve seen delays in relief reaching the ground – sometimes due to the scope of the disaster’s impacts and the resulting infrastructure damage, but also because of red tape and complex requirements. It seems at every turn, there’s some regulation, policy, or “this-is-the-way-we’ve-always-done-it” approach that defies common sense.

For example, as Secretary Mayorkas mentioned recently that the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) was being depleted – right after we appropriated $20 billion – the DHS Inspector General noted billions of unspent funds tied to delayed disaster closeouts of up to 16 years.

Congress and this committee continue to pass bills to streamline FEMA assistance, but it seems the more we try to cut red tape, FEMA adds more or just simply doesn’t change course.  I’m eager to hear from FEMA today on how they have worked with federal, state, and local partners to speed up this process.

In response to concerns about FEMA’s response to the recent disasters, on October 11th, Chairman Sam Graves and I sent a letter to FEMA raising critical questions about the response to Hurricane Helene, reports of the slow pace of FEMA aid, and the state of the DRF. I ask unanimous consent that this letter be included in the record.

The response from the FEMA Administrator described how the continuing resolution passed by Congress brought the balance of the DRF to $21.9 billion, and FEMA immediately obligated $8.8 billion in previously delayed projects. This reduced available funds for future disasters to $13.1 billion. I ask unanimous consent that FEMA’s response letter also be included in the record.

I am deeply troubled by how fast the DRF was depleted. Equally troubling are FEMA’s forays into providing sheltering assistance to illegal aliens at the Southern Border, which has cost taxpayers more than $1 billion since 2019. Although these funds have not come from the DRF, they are certainly taking dollars and staffing resources away from helping American citizens in need.

FEMA’s focus should remain on helping communities respond to and recover from natural disasters, rather than on diverting taxpayer resources toward political initiatives, like exacerbating the crisis at the Southern Border, climate change, or picking and choosing which homes to canvas based on political signs.

With that, I look forward to hearing from our witnesses on these topics.