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Federal Emergency Management Agency officials have informed former President Donald Trump of this fact; however, former President Trump falsely claims that funds intended for disaster relief had been diverted for illegal immigration programs instead. They allege the Biden administration took hurricane recovery money away to spend it on housing for people illegally present here in America.
FEMA addressed this false claim on its “rumor response” page on October 3: “No money is being diverted away from disaster response needs; FEMA’s efforts and individual assistance programs are funded using its dedicated fund, the Disaster Relief Fund; no such money has ever been diverted for other, non-disaster related efforts.”
Trump responded differently at a Michigan rally the same day when discussing how President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have responded to Hurricane Helene’s devastation across several southeastern states.
“[T]heir response to Hurricane or Storm Florence has been completely inept,” Trump asserted. “Kamala used all her FEMA money, in the billions of dollars, on housing for illegal migrants who should never have entered our nation in the first place.”
As part of his remarks, Mr. LaPierre suggested that the administration was not providing hurricane relief due to their plan “stole FEMA funds like they stole bank money so it can go toward giving illegal alien votes for this season’s elections”.
As FEMA and news organizations had corrected Trump’s false information, he continued making similar assertions in public appearances. For example, during an Oct 4 town hall event in North Carolina – one of the hardest hit states – Trump claimed that residents cannot receive federal assistance there due to “missing billions they gave out… to migrants that came here who now we don’t have” as part of an excuse not having enough funds available from taxpayers for relief efforts.
Federal law forbids noncitizens from voting legally in federal elections and there’s no evidence to indicate any disaster relief money has gone “missing”.
FEMA responded to speculation over hurricane relief with this statement on its webpage: If Helene affected your area, don’t wait a second longer – apply now as there’s assistance available that meets varying needs!
Separate Funding Accounts
Trump began making false funding claims after Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of Homeland Security, warned that FEMA (an agency under DHS), may not have enough money for hurricane season 2016 which began June 1 and runs through Nov 30th.
At an Oct. 2 press gaggle, Mayorkas was asked by a reporter if FEMA currently had enough funds for recovery efforts and whether Congress may need to appropriate additional money from it. Mayorkas responded that FEMA is meeting immediate needs with what money they had, while expecting another hurricane may hit soon which means their resources do not stretch through to cover everything that may come their way; “FEMA does not currently possess enough funding resources in order to handle what lies ahead and is imminent.
He continued by explaining that although the agency currently had funds available to it to meet immediate needs due to continuing budget resolution, these were not stable sources of supply; hence the multi-billion-dollar recovery effort will span multiple years and decades.
As Mayorkas noted, the federal government is operating under a continuing budget resolution because Congress has failed to pass DHS and other department appropriation bills for fiscal year 2025 (beginning October 1). Biden signed an interim funding bill into law last September that covers funding through Dec 20th.
E&E News reported that although Congress approved a continuing resolution with $20 billion for disaster relief in it, FEMA financial reports revealed it may only last through January. When Congress passed their stopgap measure last month without additional hurricane funding being included for relief purposes, lawmakers instead chose not to include anything similar for hurricane aid relief.
Congress leaders have agreed to postpone negotiations of a disaster spending package until after November’s elections have taken place.
Since Mayorkas made her remarks, Trump and other critics of her department’s Shelter and Services Program began targeting federal funding for it, asserting that funds had been taken away from responding to natural disasters for its grant program. Some who made these claims relied upon incorrect information from an Oct 1 Federalist article which falsely reported: ‘Biden-Harris Administration took more than $1 Billion Tax Dollars Allocated For American Disaster Relief And Used It For Illegal Immigration Services.”
Congress created the Shelter and Services Program in 2023 specifically to pay payments to nonfederal entities providing “incredible shelter and other eligible services to migrants encountered and released from DHS custody”, as outlined by a Congressional Research Service report published during that fiscal year. Congress allocated around $364 million for fiscal year 2023 before increasing it up to $650 million for 2024.
FEMA has stated that none of this money came from FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund, which is funded separately. At fiscal year 2024’s end on Sept 30th, nearly $57 billion had been set aside in total budget resources including about $20 billion from initial appropriations from Congress as initial allocation and more than $25 billion as additional supplemental allocation from additional congressional bodies.
As Secretary Mayorkas stated, FEMA is equipped to address immediate needs associated with Hurricane Helene and other disasters,” according to DHS spokesperson in a statement issued to reporters. Furthermore, “The Shelter and Services Program (SSP) was authorized by Congress as an appropriated grant program that is unrelated in any way with FEMA’s disaster authorities or funding streams,” stated this DHS spokesperson in furtherance of his claim.
According to CRS’ estimates, funding for migrants came from Customs and Border Protection’s budget at DHS; FEMA administered grants distributed through CBP on their behalf.
Trump’s campaign has called attention to funding allocated for FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program, established in 1983 before its replacement with Shelter and Services Program in 2001.
On Oct. 7, the Trump campaign published a post citing this program and noting its widespread criticism by White House officials and media members, asserting that FEMA funds were being diverted for illegal aliens by FEMA funds used for FEMA reimbursement payments to states dealing with an increase in migrants. They included links to video footage showing CNN reporter Paula Newsome speaking with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about available federal emergency food assistance program (EFSP) funds being made available by Washington for local governments dealing with an influx of migrants in September 2022 about such funding being available from Washington that had available federal EFSP funds being made available from Washington state governments dealing with an increased influx of migrants that needed federal support funds from Washington state governments dealing with an increase.
Although FEMA administered funding for Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP), Congress appropriated money separately for it during fiscal 2019. In 2019, during Trump administration, Congress also passed their first legislation funding specifically migrant support assistance through EFSP according to CRS report of 2023.
Trump Repurposes Disaster Funds in DHS
As other news outlets have pointed out, during President Donald Trump’s administration in 2019, DHS officials did use some money from FEMA’s disaster relief budget to address issues at the southern border.
In August that same year – during hurricane season – DHS announced to the Associated Press that it “would transfer $155 million for temporary facilities to be established along the U.S.-Mexican border to facilitate asylum hearings more quickly.
“According to lawmakers, this money will come out of unobligated funds in FEMA’s base disaster relief fund,” reported The Associated Press (AP).
So, Trump is falsely accusing Biden-Harris’ administration of something DHS did under Trump.
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