FEMA's claim may be accurate in the strictest sense of the word. However, it is easy to conclude that if the agency ultimately gets some finite sum of taxpayer funding, a chunk of that funding does not benefit American citizens in need. The fact that it is coming from the disaster aid bucket may be a distinction without much of a difference.
Either way, as Breanna Morello reported, about $640.9 million in FEMA funding is going toward noncitizens in FY2024 alone from the Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP). In FY2023, FEMA awarded almost $364 million to noncitizens.
How Can FEMA Use Funds for Noncitizens?
The EFSP program was a Reagan-era program associated with a 1983 law called the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Act. According to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), this 1983 law "directed the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to establish a national board that would funnel $50 million through local boards to private voluntary organizations providing 'emergency food and shelter to needy individuals'".
The 1983 law was transfigured into the 1987 "Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act" bill. The bill was enacted to help Americans in crisis due to a shortage of shelters. Veterans, Native Americans, the elderly, families with children–all American citizens were on the list. The 1987 law opened the door to using FEMA funding to help noncitizens. According to CIS:
"The national EFSP board is chaired by the FEMA director, and (as described by the Congressional Research Service) includes representatives from six private nonprofit organizations: (1) the American Red Cross; (2) Catholic Charities U.S.A.; (3) the Jewish Federations of North America; (4) the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.; (5) the Salvation Army; and (6) United Way Worldwide."
These NGOs are on the long list of NGOs supporting and aiding Biden's unsustainable open-border policies and operate at our nation's borders and beyond, receiving millions in government grants to give illegal aliens shelter, food, phones, cash cards, and to assist with securing services that should be reserved for American citizens.
In addition to yearly allocations in FEMA funding for EFSP in the millions, Biden reportedly signed in 2022 a massive spending bill that funneled $785 million to shelter, feed, and support noncitizens. Government money is notoriously difficult to track and nail down. However, regardless of how DHS does its funny math, the politics and ideology behind the allocations seem clear. The Hurricane Helene disaster has prompted many Americans to question Biden-Harris' priorities regarding American citizens.
Simon Hankinson, Senior Research Fellow for the Heritage Foundation, wrote in 2023 that the White House "held FEMA funding hostage" with a "$40 billion dollar supplemental funding bill" if Congress didn't send "billions more to Ukraine." Hankinson also pointed out that FEMA grant money, "unlike its Disaster Relief and Flood Insurance programs, doesn't require the president to declare a federal disaster." Sounds like a government funding workaround to me. According to Hankinson, New York City alone "burns through $8 million a day" in FEMA funding to noncitizens, and he affirms that FEMA grants are "meant to help taxpaying Americans prepare for and cope with hurricanes, fires, and floods."
The Funding is Ultimately Unconstitutional
The uncomfortable truth about the appropriation of funding is, according to the Constitution, these kinds of appropriations should never have been dictated or allocated by the Executive or DHS in the first place but rather by the House of Representatives. James Madison, in Federalist 58, wrote that the "power over the purse may, in fact, be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon with which any constitution can arm the immediate representatives of the people, for obtaining a redress of every grievance, and for carrying into effect every just and salutary measure...reducing, as far as it seems to have wished, all the overgrown prerogatives of the other branches of government."
In the Virginia Ratifying Debates of 1788, Madison stated, "The Constitution places the power in the House of originating money bills." That is because representatives in the House "were chosen by the people and supposed to be the best acquainted with their interests and ability."
What Counties and States Are Most Affected by Hurricane Helene?
According to FEMA and state.gov websites, the counties most affected by Hurricane Helene are Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee are listed in the screencap below:
The effects of Hurricane Helene have been devastating. UncoverDC spoke with two North Carolina residents on Thursday. They confirmed rivers crested at historic levels above the flood zone. Bodies of adults, children, and animals are being found in remote areas and have been seen floating down rivers. Many of the places are remote and have no water or electricity. These remote areas rely on propane for energy, and it is almost impossible to deliver propane to the areas that are cut off because of badly eroded roads and byways. Homes and businesses have been reduced to splinters and rubble. Entire towns are entirely gone.
Margo, one of the residents interviewed by UncoverDC, is a native North Carolinian. She says Governor Cooper delayed aid and National Guard troops unnecessarily. Governor Cooper eventually authorized 1000 National Guard. However, Governor Ron DeSantis "sent the National Guard 2 or 3 days before Governor Cooper acted."
FEMA headquarters for the affected region in North Carolina is in Marion. According to Margo, FEMA logistical support is stationed in Murphy, Cherokee County, and she reports Murphy was relatively unaffected by the storm. FEMA personnel are reportedly staying at the Casino there, about 100 miles from Asheville, and they may be staging aid on the perimeter to avoid using resources in the impact zones.
Margo, who lives in Murphy, reported that during COVID, Elon Musk was negotiating Starlink services, including services for North Carolina. However, the Biden administration came after Musk, and funding for the untethered internet service was shut down. Satellite internet is well suited to remote areas.
Margo is referring to an FCC initiative in 2020 that awarded grants "to expand high-speed internet access around the country. Starlink won an $885 million award to connect over 640,000 homes and businesses, according to reporting from Fox Business. The agency rescinded the award in 2022, arguing Starlink wouldn't be reasonably capable of meeting program requirements, and reaffirmed the decision in 2023."
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr railed against the revocation of the grant, implying it was political because the Biden administration was going after Musk unfairly with "an unprecedented campaign of regulatory harassment." Rural America lost as a result, and rural communities now feel the sting. Elon Musk agreed with a Sept. 30 X post stating "the 5 most impacted states by loss of communication after Hurricane Helene, would have 92,833 Starlink kits at their disposable if the FCC had not revoked in bad faith the awarded support to SpaceX of only $1,047 per Starlink kit."
Carr confirmed the decision was not only small-minded, it was costly. "We're taking taxpayer dollars to try to extend internet services to parts of the country when we could've taken care of it had we simply stuck with that Starlink deal. The Starlink deal was basically $1,300 per location in government support… Now you've got cases where the government is spending in the ballpark of, and in some cases in excess of, $100,000 per location to build out fiber high-speed internet to these locations," Carr said.
Cable and towers for broadband are costly and nearly impossible to dig. Moreover, the state has to get permission from the Cherokee tribe to run broadband, and the Cherokee Tribe headquarters is in Oklahoma. Many rural areas, especially those in the state's western region, have poor or non-existent communication on a good day, let alone during a disaster when they need it the most.
Michele Woodhouse, who lives in an affected area, told UncoverDC that at least 77 cell towers are reportedly down, and 10,911 centers are inoperable. Both women explained that while it is disappointing that FEMA is slow in its efforts to help local communities, the rural people of North Carolina have a long history of rugged independence, resilience, resourcefulness, and an ability to adapt to adverse conditions.
UncoverDC also asked Woodhouse, a GOP District Chair for NC11, what the party is doing in North Carolina to ensure people can vote. NC11 represents some of the hardest-hit counties in the state. It is a delicate issue because survival is the priority for so many. She and her colleagues are working 24/7 to ensure those who wish to vote can vote. Her biggest concern is that Democrats in the state will push for the suspension of election laws and rules because of the disaster. Woodhouse shared:
When asked about the plan to ensure laws were followed, and the election would accurately reflect the will of the state's voters, Woodhouse explained that she and others are working with boards of elections in the affected area to assess the impact. Questions like: Is the building still standing? Are machines or ballots damaged? Is there internet and electricity? When will they meet to assess the status of absentee ballots?
The five far West counties that we have in the southern point of the state, the ones that lead into north Georgia, were not impacted at all, according to Woodhouse, meaning there are five down there that lead into north Georgia. "They were not impacted at all. Then we have other counties. We are looking at how the disaster impacted the early voting sites in the highly affected areas," said Woodhouse.
Woodhouse added:
"The plan is to craft bills next week when the General Assembly goes back in on the 9th. We call those the North Carolina local bills. These local bills will have a sunset right after canvassing, so they won't stay on the books, but they will prevent Roy Cooper's ability to veto them.
"We are literally in recovery mode. We have bodies floating down rivers right now. It is that bad. The RNC will be playing a critical role inside the four walls of the early voting sites to make sure that we've got the RNC resources in-house to be protecting the integrity of the elections that are happening on the ground across the state of North Carolina. We are building a powerful ground game from a structural standpoint which I feel really good about. And the motivation on the ground in western North Carolina has never been higher to get out and vote. We have to make sure polls are open and we have people in house to protect the integrity of the election."
Woodhouse also shared that there will be a significant focus on getting the vote out while being sensitive to the severe hardships people are facing. She stated:
"Some may be sheltered in a different county from the one they vote in. We have to figure out how to get them back to their county. And when you have fled your house with just the clothes on your back," she continued, "You might not have an ID. How will we make exceptions, because we do have a form for that. We have to make sure we don't have 45,000 provisional ballots. That would be highly problematic.
Our biggest voting bloc counties are Henderson County and Buncombe County. Buncombe was hit much harder than Henderson. Henderson should be back up and running within a week. We anticipate most of the counties will be back up and highly functional before early voting starts on the 17th. However, some of the counties to the north—Madison, Mitchell, Avery, Yancey, and Watauga have been hit much harder because they are smaller counties with fewer resources. We are looking at how to change some statutes so we can deploy out-of-county poll workers, poll observers, and resources into those communities."
Woodhouse worries that the death toll is much higher than people fully realize. She says most people helping at this time are private citizens. Most efforts are now search and recovery efforts, not search and rescue. Woodhouse and others believe thousands have died as a result of the storm.
