Senator Katie Britt (R-AL) demanded answers from two top Biden administration officials on Saturday over guidance from a now-fired Federal Emergency Management Agency employee who ordered relief workers in Florida to skip the homes of Trump supporters.
In a letter first shared with The Daily Wire, Britt asked Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell to provide answers about guidance from FEMA supervisor Marn’i Washington telling relief workers to “avoid homes advertising Trump” when offering relief in Lake Placid, Florida. This guidance was first reported on by The Daily Wire, which spoke with multiple government employees from the relief team who said the instructions led to at least 20 homes being skipped.
“I am writing to express my outrage with recent press reports that, in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton in Florida, a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) supervisor instructed relief workers to bypass houses displaying support for President Trump,” Britt wrote.
Britt, the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, said she wanted to know when FEMA found out about the guidance and what actions it had taken to ensure that it wouldn’t happen again.
“It is simply outrageous that any FEMA personnel, let alone a supervisor, would condition aid to victims based on their political views,” she wrote. “I appreciate that Administrator Criswell has condemned these actions and fired the supervisor, but the American people need answers regarding how this happened and if anyone else was complicit, as well as assurance it will not happen again.”
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Britt asked the two officials if there had been any other whistleblower reports of homes being bypassed for political purposes. She also asked if help had been offered to those people in Lake Placid whose homes had been skipped. She also asked what reasons FEMA had for allowing people to skip homes when canvassing neighborhoods.
“Any disaster funding provided by Congress must be made available to all Americans who are victims of presidentially declared disasters, and cannot be conditioned or delayed based on their political views,” she wrote.
Fellow Republican Senator Josh Hawley (MO) sent a letter on Saturday to Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari urging him to launch a “comprehensive investigation” into the incident, citing The Daily Wire report.
FEMA officials discriminated against Trump voters? Totally illegal. I’m asking the Inspector General to launch a full investigation immediately. Everyone involved needs to be identified, fired – and if necessary, prosecuted pic.twitter.com/GGoJUcgneb
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) November 9, 2024
Numerous state and federal lawmakers have demanded investigations into FEMA following The Daily Wire’s report, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who ordered his state’s Division of Emergency Management to investigate the incident.
