Biden Begs Congress for About $100B in Replenished Disaster Relief Aid After FEMA Controversies; FEMA Favors Migrants Over Hurricane Victims, and That’s a Fact

Biden begs Congress for about $100B in replenished disaster relief aid after FEMA controversies:

President Biden sent a formal request to Congress Monday for just over $98 billion in replenished disaster relief funds to help Americans reeling from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, as his administration remains under fire over allegations that federal responders were told to skip houses with campaign signs backing Donald Trump.

Biden’s request features $40 billion in funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund — after an agency supervisor claimed that avoiding households supportive of the 45th president was a widespread practice in the hurricane-hit states of North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida.

“The Congress has previously responded on a bipartisan basis to support communities in the wake of natural disasters,” Biden, 81, wrote in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) Monday.

“My Administration will be with those affected until the job is done.”

Of particular focus for Biden is the Small Business Administration’s disaster loan program, which ran dry of funding, according to an Oct. 15 announcement from the agency.

Biden is seeking $2 billion for the SBA’s disaster loan program. More than 10,000 loan offers have been put on ice amid SBA’s exhausted funds.

Other funds sought include $24 billion for the Department of Agriculture’s programs that deal with the ramifications of natural disasters in the farming sector and $12 billion for the Department of Housing and Urban Development and $8 billion for the Department of Transportation — all related to disaster relief.

Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget, outlined the request in a memo.

“The last time Congress passed a comprehensive disaster package was in December 2022 as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act [of] 2023. Since then, numerous deadly storms and disasters have struck communities across the country and Americans are still picking up the pieces,” she wrote.

Johnson, 52, had swatted down calls for him to summon Congress back into session from its recess during the 2024 presidential election homestretch to re-up disaster relief.

Instead, he argued that such as move would be “premature” and that he wanted more specific estimates of the damage done. —>READ MORE HERE

FEMA Favors Migrants Over Hurricane Victims, and That’s a Fact:

Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc on communities in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas in September. Since then, the pain and suffering of this natural disaster have been multiplied by the Biden-Harris administration’s lackluster response. To date, however, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has failed to take responsibility for its failure.

The agency needs a fact-check. And the American people deserve one.

For example, FEMA denies rumors that it distributes aid based on demographic characteristics. But FEMA’s own website says otherwise. The agency considers factors such as race, ethnicity, and English proficiency when granting aid. This reflects the Biden-Harris administration’s insistence since the very first day of the administration that “equity” would be its guiding principle.

This has been especially detrimental in North Carolina, where FEMA’s DEI-based formulas factor racial and minority status into “social susceptibility,” a main component of the National Risk Index score. This score helps FEMA determine which areas to prioritize for aid, and it could put predominantly white areas at a significant disadvantage.

Consider places like Buncombe County. Hurricane Helene killed at least 57 people there, the largest death toll of any single county that we know of so far. But because Buncombe County has a nearly 90% white population, it has a “relatively low” NRI score, which could help explain why the agency’s aid hasn’t arrived in a timely manner.

FEMA also claims it has not allocated any money to illegal aliens over American citizens. FEMA’s “fact-check” page states: “Disaster Relief Fund money has not been diverted to other, non-disaster related efforts.”

But this claim is a dodge at best. It does not address the main concern: that this administration has granted over $1 billion to organizations that provide illegal aliens with transportation and housing services, instead of using that money for disaster relief. FEMA’s effort to sidestep the truth by citing a technicality — the fact that disaster relief and illegal alien services grants are separate funds — is shameful. Americans deserve better.

The simple truth is that FEMA’s spending reflects its DEI agenda. FEMA spent $1 billion on illegal alien services instead of disaster relief resources that could have mitigated the deadly impact of recent hurricanes.

In 2023, Joe Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which allocated $350 million for humanitarian aid through FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program-Humanitarian. The administration then diverted resources and authority from agencies responsible for combatting illegal immigration, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection. —>READ MORE HERE

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