Did Trump Take Money Out Of Fema

President Trump, Vice President Pence and showtime lady Melania Trump visit the Federal Emergency Direction Agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., on June 6. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen and FEMA Administrator Brock Long are seated at right. This summertime, DHS transferred nearly $10 million from FEMA to immigration authorities, according to a congressional certificate. Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

President Trump, Vice President Pence and commencement lady Melania Trump visit the Federal Emergency Management Bureau headquarters in Washington, D.C., on June 6. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen and FEMA Administrator Brock Long are seated at right. This summer, DHS transferred most $ten one thousand thousand from FEMA to clearing authorities, according to a congressional document.

Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

This summer, the Trump assistants transferred near $10 one thousand thousand abroad from the agency that responds to disasters and emergencies, redirecting information technology toward i of President Trump's summit priorities — the deportation of undocumented residents of the U.S.

The funds transfer is prompting the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cut back on preparation, It security and infrastructure investments, co-ordinate to a document sent to Congress and released past Autonomous Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.

Merkley calls the transfer "reprehensible," and clearing advocates say it highlights an alarming shift in priorities, but the White House is adamant that the redistribution of funds will have no harmful consequence on the response to Hurricane Florence.

In a briefing Wednesday, a FEMA response and recovery official told reporters the bureau has "plenty of resources" to respond to the tempest, currently approaching the Carolinas and Georgia.

The transfer of funds to Immigration and Community Enforcement "has not impacted our situation whatsoever," said Jeff Byard, the associate administrator of an arm of FEMA.

The fund transfer was revealed in a June 30 certificate obtained past Merkley, a vocal critic of Trump'due south immigration policies who helped draw attending to the separation of families at the border. His part has shared the file with NPR.

The Department of Homeland Security, which includes both FEMA and ICE, told Congress that ICE needed an extra $200 million to cover the costs of detaining and deporting more than migrants than the bureau had expected.

To cover the shortfall, DHS "reprogrammed" its financial resources, which is permitted under budget rules.

Among other things, information technology redirected $ix.75 million from FEMA's regional operations, response and recovery, mitigation, mission support and constabulary enforcement training budgets.

Merkley, who is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee but does non sit down on the Homeland Security subcommittee, nevertheless caused a copy of the certificate describing the transfer and released it on Tuesday. He appeared on MSNBC to discuss the transfer.

On Twitter, Merkley chosen the conclusion to transfer funds out of FEMA — right before hurricane season — "unbelievable" and "reprehensible."

DHS argues in the certificate that the impact on FEMA volition be "minimal."

Because of the loss of the $nine.75 million, FEMA "will curtail preparation, travel, public engagement sessions, IT security back up and infrastructure maintenance," DHS writes.

Without the transfer, the document states, "Water ice will not be able to deport those who have violated clearing laws. Ice could as well exist forced to reduce its electric current interior enforcement operations."

FEMA receives more than $16 billion in funding each twelvemonth, about twice the funding earmarked for ICE.

The transfer was approved past the Republican chairs of the House and Senate Homeland Security appropriations subcommittees, simply non past the rest of the subcommittees' members.

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a member of the Homeland Security subcommittee, sent a argument to NPR denouncing the "hefty cost" of Trump'south clearing policies.

"Now our Eastern Declension is left even more vulnerable in the path of Hurricane Florence," Leahy said. "I am hopeful that the assistants will come across the consequences of its deportment, and brainstorm to piece of work with Republicans AND Democrats to actually accost the problems in our immigration system."

The Department of Homeland Security has forcefully resisted whatsoever suggestion that disaster readiness has been afflicted past the fund transfer.

DHS spokesman Tyler Houlton chosen Merkley's announcement "a sorry try to push a false agenda," without denying the authenticity of the certificate.

Under no circumstances was any disaster relief funding transferred from @fema to clearing enforcement efforts. This is a sorry attempt to button a false agenda at a fourth dimension when the administration is focused on assisting millions on the Due east Declension facing a catastrophic disaster.

— DHS Spokesperson (@SpoxDHS) September 12, 2018

Houlton stated that the funds did not come from disaster relief funding, which is a carve up pool of coin within FEMA, and therefore could not have been used for hurricane response.

Moira Whelan, a former DHS official, told The Washington Post that Houlton was "parsing words," because money outside the Disaster Relief Fund is still used to prepare for disasters and improve the response to them.

Ray Zaccaro, Merkley's communications managing director, tells NPR the assistants's response has been "defensive and completely fallacious."

"This comment from FEMA's spokesperson is as factual every bit the president'southward assertion that Administration's response to Hurricane Maria was 'incredibly successful' and 'one of the best jobs that's ever been washed,' " Zaccaro said via e-mail.

Meanwhile, immigration advocates are concerned not simply virtually where the money came from, merely where information technology went.

"There's peradventure never been a clearer joint of this administration's priorities than this transfer certificate: cruelty over compassion. While Puerto Rican families struggled to survive a disaster our government largely ignored, the White House and DHS took funds from FEMA's coffers to jail more aviary seekers and love community members," Heidi Altman, the director of policy for the National Immigrant Justice Eye, told NPR via email.

"DHS has go masterful at manipulating the appropriations process to pursue its political calendar of jailing and deporting as many immigrants as they can," she said. "Congress has complete dominance to reign in this mismanagement and the systemic abuses it enables."

This June, a group of immigrant and human rights groups raised the alarm about Water ice'south requests for fund transfers, accusing DHS of "asking for forgiveness rather than permission after dramatically overspending its appropriated budget in ways both morally reprehensible and fiscally irresponsible."

The Senate'south appropriations subcommittee on Homeland Security has, less publicly, expressed similar concerns.

A study issued in June past the Republican subcommittee chair, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, described "persistent and growing concerns near Water ice's lack of fiscal bailiwick."

"The Committee strongly discourages transfer or reprogramming requests to cover ICE'southward excesses," the report stated. Futurity requests should include "transparent and publically-available evidence" that the money is required because of "circumstances ... that are truly across ICE's command," the senators said.

The funds redirected from FEMA this summer covered just a small portion of Ice'due south overspending. (A fraction of the transferred funds also covered extra costs the Secret Service incurred in protecting the White House.)

Other DHS operations too saw their budgets cutting to cover detention and deportation costs, co-ordinate to the document released by Merkley.

The Coast Guard is losing $fourteen meg it would accept spent on maintenance, while the Federal Air Marshal plan is beingness decreased and the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction office is not getting funds for planning and training materials.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2018/09/12/647021316/trump-administration-transferred-9-8-million-from-fema-to-ice

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