Untapped Relief: FEMA Is Sitting on Billions of Unused Disaster Funds

James Varney, RealClearInvestigations 

. . .“As a result, the potential risk for fraud, waste, and abuse increases the longer a program remains open,” a DHS report concluded." . . .

"Although the Federal Emergency Management Agency told Congress last month that it had $4 billion in its Disaster Relief Fund, officials also warned that the Fund could have a shortfall of $6 billion by year’s end, a situation FEMA says could deteriorate in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

" 'While FEMA is expected to ask Congress for new money, budget experts note a surprising fact: FEMA is currently sitting on untapped reserves appropriated for past disasters stretching back decades. 

" 'An August report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General noted that in 2022, FEMA “estimated that 847 disaster declarations with approximately $73 billion in unliquidated funds remained open.” 

"Drilling down on that data, the OIG found that $8.3 billion of that total was for disasters declared in 2012 or earlier.

"Such developments are part of a larger pattern in which FEMA failed to close out specific grant programs “within a certain timeframe, known as the period of performance (POP),” according to the IG report. Those projects now represent billions in unliquidated appropriations that could potentially be returned to the DRF (Disaster Relief Fund).”

"These “unliquidated obligations” reflect the complex federal budgeting processes. Safeguards are important so that FEMA funding doesn’t become a slush fund that the agency can spend however it chooses, budget experts said, but the inability to tap unspent appropriations from long-ago crises complicates the agency’s ability to respond to immediate disasters." . . .

Must-watch video: Kamala Harris's sordid past, from her old associate Harmeet Dhillon, as told to Tucker Carlson

  Monica Showalter

"And ultimately, we learn that Kamala would be a disaster as president from this picture, told in minute detail." . . .

. . ."We learn how Kamala, a ditz with ambitions from Canada, who pronounced her name many different ways during her lifetime, never bothered to register to vote until she was 29 years old, which would have been about the time she "dated" Willie Brown. That contrasts sharply to her claims of being an "activist" for various social causes from an early age. Activists don't skip registering to vote. But party girls often do.

"We learn about the significance of Willie Brown in San Francisco's politics, what he brought her, what she gained, the goodies she got and how he worked the system. We learn she never put in a day's work in her life, which would have gotten her fired from any real job, and how it sure as heck shows today. It was always all about the connections, not putting out the way other lawyers put out. That accumulated over her career, which is why we see her lack of confidence as a candidate today.

"We learn that she operated like Willie Brown, breaking every campaign law in the books to get elected, yet never paying a price because the political machine always protected her. In turn, when she started "winning" public office, she returned the favors by protecting all kinds of miscreants and criminals to keep her political masters happy. She had a thing against pro-life journalists, and a thing against free speech itself, which she is bound to destroy if she gets elected. She commited a lot of injustices against others for this habit, getting away with it every time, leading Harmeet to view her as simply a criminal." . . .

"When such people tell me they support Democrats I say, “Are you also a carnivorous vegetarian?' ”

 Kevin Finn  

"Evidently many of the so-called Catholic faithful also support the open border policies of the Biden administration. Centuries ago St. Thomas Aquinas put forth a well-thought out statement on immigration that is now widely ignored."  K.F.

"In a recent video, Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, wearing a camouflage hat emblazoned with a Harris/Walz logo, fed Dorito chips to a kneeling left-wing media celebrity in what many consider a blasphemous parody of the Catholic Sacrament of Communion. Catholics believe that during the Mass, the bread and wine undergo a process called Transubstantiation in which they are changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. The bread, shaped into small discs called “hosts” are then distributed to the people who may receive them in the hand or on the tongue while standing or kneeling. Traditional Catholics prefer to receive on the tongue while they kneel.

"Watching a video of a virulently pro-abortion governor and celebrity mock this sacrament was deeply offensive to some Catholics. I say some, not many or all because a recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that,

64 percent of U.S. Catholics (and 40 percent of Catholic Republicans) agreed that abortion should be legal in most or all cases, almost identical to the 65 percent of all adult Americans who held that view. Only 25 percent of evangelical Protestants held this view, putting Catholics closer to those with no religious affiliation at all (87 percent of whom said abortion should be legal in most or all case) than to their fellow Christians.

"If there’s a shred of a silver lining here at all it is that only 40% of Catholic Republicans hold that view. One would assume that the majority of those Catholics supporting abortion are Democrats or are unaffiliated." . . .

Such as barrio gang members for one example? And recall the baptism scene in The Godfather? I have met personally a number of cult members at my door who have previously been Catholics led on by those with a distorted Bible translation and no knowledge of true Scriptures to resist them. TD

Elise Stefanik: Kamala Harris Hype ‘Fake from the Get-Go’; Media Are ‘Sycophants and Stenographers for the Left’

Hannah Knudsen  

“ 'Now, when she’s asked softball questions, she implodes, whether it’s The View, whether it’s 60 Minutes,” she said, hoping that former President Donald Trump will force them to release the full transcripts."

"The hype for Vice President Kamala Harris was “fake from the get-go,” and the mainstream media have been exposed as “sycophants and stenographers for the left” amid Harris’s collapse, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) said during an appearance on Breitbart News Saturday.

"“It was fake from the get-go, and not only is it exposing Kamala Harris”; it is exposing the media as “sycophants and stenographers for the left,” Stefanik said, referencing the lack of substance in Harris’s recent interviews.

"“They’ve lost tremendous, tremendous credibility. And let’s be honest: these are not tough interviews. These are softball interviews that if you’re running for Congress or you’re running for local office, you get tougher questions,” the House Republican Conference chair continued.

"“Now, when she’s asked softball questions, she implodes, whether it’s The View, whether it’s 60 Minutes,” she said, hoping that former President Donald Trump will force them to release the full transcripts.

" 'That’s one of the things I love about President Trump and this movement, is he is exposing this deep rot in the Deep State, working with mainstream media to try to pull one over the American people. But you know what? The American people are smart. They see through this. They see through the answer that Kamala Harris just gave on The View this week, saying there was nothing she would do differently,” she said, describing that as “abysmal and unacceptable.”

" 'Not only does she own Joe Biden’s crises; she created the crises in her positions as open borders czar, casting deciding votes in the Senate, etc. So again, this is something where the more people learn about Kamala Harris as a candidate, the less support she has,” Stefanik said, expressing hope that Harris continues to participate in these interviews." . . .