(The Center Square) – House Oversight Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., has opened an investigation into the Federal Emergency Management Agency over reports that it discriminated against supporters of Donald Trump.
Comer said whistleblower reports suggest anti-Trump discrimination is rampant and has been going on for years.
“[O]n the condition of anonymity, a FEMA official stated that the practice avoiding ‘white or conservative-dominated’ areas is an ‘open secret at the agency that has been going on for years,’” Comer said in a letter to FEMA.
The investigation comes after FEMA fired one of its hurricane response supervisors after news went viral that she told her workers to avoid “Trump houses.”
However, that employee has publicly said she was only following orders and acting according to the culture at FEMA.
Comer and more than two dozen Republican lawmakers sent a letter to FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell demanding documentation, from internal policies to spending figures to incident reports.
Lawmakers have pointed toward more anonymous sources backing up the fired employee’s claims.
“Additionally, another whistleblower contacted the Committee during the hearing,” the letter said. “This individual informed the Committee that a FEMA contractor warned a disabled veteran’s family in Georgia to remove Trump campaign materials from their home because FEMA supervisors viewed Trump supporters as domestic terrorists.
At a hearing this week, U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., pointed to 35 of his constituents who shared similar stories with him.
Lawmakers grilled Criswell over the discrimination reports at the hearing as well as FEMA’s recent focus on Diversity Equity and Inclusion efforts, something FEMA named as its number one goal in its latest strategic report.
Lawmakers also raised concerns about the agency spending hundreds of millions of dollars on helping migrants. Defenders of FEMA have said the migrant funds do not take directly from disaster relief, while critics insist it shows missplaced priorities for the emergency relief agency.
“In the fiscal year of 2023, FEMA spent nearly a billion dollars, $789 million, to shelter illegals in the United States,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, R-Ga., said at the hearing, as The Center Square previously reported.
“This past year it was $641 million, and this money is largely distributed through NGOs…and this was to house illegal aliens,” she added. “Not Americans, who by the way all that money, that comes from Americans bank accounts when they write their checks to pay their taxes.”
At the hearing this week, Criswell also said she will request the Inspector General investigate the question of political discrimination at FEMA.
She also said she does not think this fired employee is indicative of a broader problem in the agency but is looking into it.
Criswell said FEMA workers went back to the homes that were skipped over by the fired employee and promised to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
“The Committee is in the process of investigating these claims,” the Oversight letter said. “If they are true, they would corroborate concerns that political discrimination extends beyond [the fired FEMA employee]. Furthermore, they suggest an apparent culture, whether sanctioned or not, within FEMA to politically discriminate against disaster survivors, specifically those who support President-elect Donald Trump.”