The Department of Homeland Security has canceled thousands of contracts through the Federal Emergency Management Agency after watchdog groups found billions of dollars in fraud and waste, the Daily Caller reported in an exclusive. This move comes under the direction of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, following years of agency failures.
Some of the most egregious examples include nearly $10.7 million allocated to contracted media marketing for the Ready Campaign, as well as an additional $3.3 million funded to FEMA's internal marketing department, which was intended to encourage employees to complete an internal survey. Meanwhile, FEMA spent $645,000 on hosting meetings that had as few as 15 attendees and lasted just an hour.
An additional $1.6 million was wasted on setting up a pair of routine workshops, and $1.27 million was allocated for a "conference center concierge" to provide basic services, including preparing meeting rooms and reserving audio equipment. Within the Employee Relations Branch, FEMA contracted a company to shred documents and file paperwork for $594,000 and paid another $500,000 for social media recruiting.
Latosha G. who was paid for her endorsement as part of the half-million-dollar effort, boasted online about the process. "I applied that night, and I actually got a call the next day to do an interview. And I actually ended up getting a job as a local hire. A position came open as a data management specialist. I applied, I actually got an interview, and I actually got the position," Latosha added.
The flagrant waste uncovered by DHS's inspector general and the Government Accountability Office is part of a troubling pattern within the agency. Both entities have been attempting to bring FEMA's spending under control by curbing excessive spending and promoting proper stewardship of its budget allocation, but has met extreme resistance.
"Any American who opened the books at FEMA and saw their lackluster spending controls and policies would be horrified. Secretary [Kristi] Noem has been an extraordinary leader, bringing spending best practices, fiscal responsibility, and mission alignment to an agency that has run amok for far too long," a FEMA spokesperson said.
President Donald Trump's administration has attempted to rectify some of these issues, including monthly check-ins with disaster survivors to monitor progress toward "realistic" and "achievable" housing goals based on their living standards prior to the disaster that left them homeless. Predictably, FEMA leadership is reluctant to relinquish control over the purse strings and continues its wasteful spending.
That was quite evident during Noem's confirmation hearing when Cameron Hamilton, who was acting FEMA administrator at the time, dug in his heels when questions about the agency's spending habits came up. He was gone from the agency just days later, and David Richard was tapped to replace him.
It's not just that the agency wasted taxpayer dollars in the course of its bureaucratic business. FEMA leaders did this while also, at times, abandoning the very mission for which they were given that money: disaster relief.
The agency arguably exists primarily to deploy federal help in times of natural and other disasters. Unfortunately, a 2022 inspector general's report revealed that FEMA also struggled to deliver aid to affected Americans in the aftermath of Hurricanes Maria and Irma.
The agency lost nearly 40% of the supplies sent to Puerto Rico and failed to distribute funds to those impacted by the storm's devastation for several years. In 2024, a video emerged that purportedly showed pallets full of bottled water kept locked in a 43,000 square foot warehouse after Maria made landfall on the island nation in September 2017. It caused outraged after it was widely shared to social media.
These palletts of water were just a portion of the $257 million in supplies that went missing while people on the island went without clean water. FEMA also gave $156 million to a sole proprietor who promised to provide 30 million meals to hungry islanders. Shockingly, only 50,000 were ever distributed.
Can confirm that in 2020 supplies that went to Puerto Rico (including countless pallets of water) were found just sitting unused in a locked 43,000 sq ft warehouse since Maria hit in Sept 2017, and in an internal report, FEMA admitted it failed in its response there. https://t.co/HKIkwp5aaj pic.twitter.com/9lh8GahXQs
— Truthstream Media (@truthstreamnews) October 5, 2024
Government waste is always outrageous, but FEMA has taken it to a new level by doing so while disaster-affected Americans waited for relief that would never come. Noem is right to clean house and cancel contracts until the agency is running as it should be and helping those in need.
