(NewsNation) — Lawmakers questioned the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) after hurricane recovery teams avoided homes with campaign signs supporting President-elect Donald Trump.
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee grilled FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell over a since-fired FEMA employee’s directive that staff avoid houses with Trump campaign signage in the wake of Hurricane Milton and the employees’ allegations that she was “simply following orders.”
The storms killed more than 200 people and caused at least $20 billion in damage, according to Associated Press reports.
Misinformation that circulated soon after further complicated response efforts.
Criswell told lawmakers Tuesday she has encouraged the agency’s inspector general to review whether an employee was acting alone when directing workers helping hurricane victims not to go to homes with yards signs supporting Trump.
Criswell said a critical function of the agency is to go door-to-door and meet with survivors to make them aware of federal resources available. The employee, she said, wrote to about 11 staffers under her supervision that they should “avoid homes advertising Trump.”
Criswell said her senior leadership team provided her with evidence and recommended that the employee be terminated. She concurred.
“I do not believe that this employee’s actions are indicative of any widespread cultural problems at FEMA,” Criswell said. Still, she said she would support an independent investigation into the matter.
“The IG has not yet stated they want to investigate this, but I highly encourage them to take on this case and look and see if this was a widespread issue or if this was just a single incident,” Criswell said.
What each side said
The Oversight Committee was frequently split along party lines in their lines of questioning for Criswell and the broader themes they tackled within the hearing.
Committee Chair James Comer and Rep. Jim Jordan, both Republicans, attempted to cast the directive as part of broader disdain for supporters of Trump, while House Democrats frequently brought up the spread of misinformation surrounding FEMA’s presence and the threat of climate change.
Chairmen Scott Perry, R-Pa., and Sam Graves, R-Mo., argued the agency’s short-fallings were the result of unnecessary red tape and what they consider misguided efforts to help migrants and ease climate change.
“The agency is accountable directly to the president, and so the buck stops with the president, regarding the constant mismanagement and lack of focus at its core mission,” Graves said.
Perry similarly bemoaned what he characterized as overcomplicated, bureaucratic agency practices.
“It seems the more we try to cut red tape, FEMA adds more or just simply doesn’t change course,” he said.
However, Congressmembers Dina Titus, D-Nev., and Rick Larsen, D-Wash., positioned the agency’s failures largely as a funding issue.
“FEMA’s disaster relief fund is once again approaching concerningly low levels, with less than $5 billion remaining,” Larsen said. “That sounds like a lot of money, but it is not a lot of money when you consider the costs of these disasters.”
Climate change is altering the behavior and severity of natural disasters. In turn, they’re becoming more expensive and lasting longer, Titus said.
Larsen added that the Small Business Administration disaster fund had been empty for more than a month. In that time, more than 11,000 survivors have been approved for disaster loan assistance.
“They will not receive any money until Congress makes more funding available,” Larsen said.
False claims about government funding began circulating online shortly after Hurricane Helene struck Florida, Georgia and North Carolina in September. Then-candidate Trump was among those who shared such claims on social media, including that the government was purposely withholding aid from Republican hurricane victims while FEMA redirected disaster relief funds to migrants. FEMA refuted both claims, as well as other inaccurate information surrounding the agency’s storm response.
Government officials, meanwhile, warned that the spread of inaccurate information was complicating relief efforts.
Ex-FEMA worker: ‘I’m being framed’
A FEMA worker was fired earlier this month after she directed others helping hurricane survivors not to go to homes with yard signs supporting Trump, according to the agency’s leader.
“This is a clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation,” Criswell said in a statement at the time. “This was reprehensible.”
Titus also criticized the guidance.
“I condemn the employee’s decision about discriminating with aid,” Titus said. “That should never be the case, and Administrator Criswell immediately did the right thing when she learned about this instance by firing the employee and reporting the case to the Office of Special Counsel.”
Jordan asked Criswell during the hearing whether Washington was “lying” about the practice being common and whether the FEMA administrator had directly spoken to the 13 other people to whom the orders were texted.
Criswell said she had not directly spoken to them but suggested they would be interviewed as part of an investigation into the incident.
The fired employee, Marn’i Washington, is accused of telling her survivor assistance team not to go to Florida homes with pro-Trump yard signs. Washington told NewsNation she believes she’s being used as a scapegoat for a common agency practice.
The instruction to avoid certain houses with certain campaign signs came from her direct superior based on previous team encounters, Washington said, adding that “safety precautions are not politically driven.”
Several recent hostile encounters happened at homes with Trump campaign signs, she said.
“I’m being framed. There’s no violation of the Hatch Act,” Washington said. “I was simply following orders.”
The Associated Press and NewsNation partner The Hill contributed to this report.