WASHINGTON – Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell is set to face questions from House lawmakers on Tuesday about the federal government’s response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which wreaked havoc across the Southeast.
Criswell will first testify before the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee at 10:00 a.m. ET and then before the House Oversight Committee at 2:00 p.m. ET.
House Republicans are expected to grill the FEMA chief over revelations that an agency employee said he was told by superiors to drive past homes with Trump signs in Florida. Criswell fired the employee and said he found the employee’s actions “offensive.” as a way to avoid conflict.
Three House committees are investigating the reports, including the House Homeland Security Committee, which wants to speak with leaders at the FEMA regional office.
“While today’s hearing focused on FEMA, the issue at hand is part of a larger problem: the urgent need to hold an unelected, unaccountable federal workforce accountable to the American people and to the duly elected President of the United States,” said House Oversight Chairman James Comer. R-Ky. is expected to say, according to excerpts from his written remarks.
Comer is expected to say people in Florida’s Highlands County need help, “but at least one FEMA official has used his power to make it difficult.”
“And FEMA management did not take action against this supervisor until the media exposed this discrimination,” he said. “Most importantly, FEMA officials did not immediately stop the discrimination.”
In a statement earlier this month, Criswell said Washington’s order to support Trump’s homes was “a clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles of helping people regardless of political affiliation.”
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody filed a lawsuit against Criswell and Washington last week over the incident.
Democrats, meanwhile, can focus their questions on the impact of President-elect Donald Trump’s statements and conspiracy theories about FEMA and natural disaster response. Trump, who was running for president at the time Spreading false claims about FEMA’s disaster fundsclaimed it was being used on undocumented immigrants instead of helping people in hurricane recovery.
Meanwhile, states are still reeling from the devastation caused by these typhoonsll and the Biden administration submitted to Congress on Monday a request for nearly $100 billion in new funding for the government’s ongoing response.
more than 220 people died from Hurricane Helene In late September, hitting Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. At least 17 people died During Hurricane Milton, which hit Florida hard in early October.