Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Kevin McAleenan called Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “misinformed” after she claimed FEMA is underprepared.
The state of Florida is currently preparing for the impact of Hurricane Dorian, a Category Five storm that is expected to hit state. Although the storm is expected to skirt the state, rather than make a direct hit, the state is not taking any risks as the powerful storm could still bring extream damage.
Because Florida and other east coast states could be damaged by the hurricane, all eyes have been on FEMA’s ability to care for those who could be displaced by the storm. Earlier in the year, DHS announced they would be moving some funds from FEMA to the border to address the humanitarian crisis.
Now that the U.S. is facing a pending natural disaster, many have claimed that the decision to move funds from FEMA to the border was a bad idea.
Pelosi called the move “stunningly reckless,” saying:
“Stealing from appropriated funds is always unacceptable, but to pick the pockets of disaster relief funding in order to fund an appalling, inhumane family incarceration plan is staggering — and to do so on the eve of hurricane season is stunningly reckless.”
McAleenan, however, claimed Pelosi was “badly misinformed” about the impact on FEMA. During an interview on “Face the Nation,” McAleenan explained why he felt Pelosi was wrong.
Watch McAleenan’s interview:
FEMA FUNDING: McAleenan says Speaker Pelosi is “badly misinformed about the impact” of DHS transferring money from FEMA to fund the border wall. “We believe we have fully adequate funding and no money has actually been moved at this point to begin with.” pic.twitter.com/xYY4yg5FQh
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) September 1, 2019
“I would say [Pelosi] is badly misinformed about the impact. There will be no impact of the potential reprogramming on our ability to respond to the storm. The disaster recovery fund for major disasters has over $25 billion in it. We’re talking about $125 million in a base-level fund. We believe we have fully adequate funding and no money has actually been moved at this point, to begin with. So she’s not informed.”
McAleenan noted that the funding that is set to move between FEMA and the border is funding that they asked Congress for, but were denied.
“This is money that we asked for that we didn’t receive and so we’ve identified sources across the department to help backfill that and we’re going to monitor that very carefully,” said McAleenan. “We’ve got to manage two crises at the same time. And again, we have plenty of funding in the disaster recovery fund.”
McAleenan claimed “unequivocally” that there will be no impact on FEMA’s ability to serve Americans in the pathway of Hurricane Dorian.
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