Watchdog found $7B in untapped FEMA funds even though DHS Secretary Mayorkas said none available for future disasters
A Department of Homeland Security inspector general’s report from August reveals more than $7 billion remain in emergency funding that could be used for natural disasters — even though DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said last week none was available after Hurricane Helene.Mayorkas, 64, told reporters following the devastation of Helene in North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) “does not have the funds” to endure more hurricanes this fall.“We are expecting another hurricane hitting,” the DHS chief said Oct.2, days before Hurricane Milton began picking up speed in the Gulf of Mexico.
“We do not have the funds.FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season and what is imminent.”But DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari found in his Aug.
14 report that as of October 2022, FEMA had $8.3 billion in unliquidated funds meant to relieve declared disasters from 2012 or earlier.More than $7 billion of that “could potentially be returned to the Disaster Relief Fund,” the report notes, referring to FEMA’s dedicated fund for natural calamities.So far, the feds have paid just $4 million to Americans hit by Helene in the Southeast, providing up to $750 in immediate aid for individuals to help cover the cost of groceries and emergency supplies.The storm has killed at least 232 people and caused more than $47.5 billion in devastation.“It took one week for some of the county mayors in my home state to even get a phone call from FEMA, and Kamala Harris has the nerve to announce ‘a dire humanitarian situation’ in another country,” Sen.Marsha Blackburn told The Post, referencing the VP’s announcement of $157 million in US aid to Lebanon over the weekend.“Our own people in Tennessee, North Carolina, and in the Southeast are the ones facing ‘a dire humanitarian situation’ and need ‘food, water, and shelter,'” Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said.
“America Las...