Despite facts to the contrary and pushback from within their own party, Iowa Republican U.S. House members this week pushed disproved claims implying the federal government lacks the resources to respond to devastating hurricanes across the southeast because it has spent money on migrants.
Federal disaster aid has turned into a political football on the eve of a contentious presidential election amid back-to-back hurricanes. Rumors, misinformation and conspiracy theories about the federal government’s response to Hurricane Helene have run rampant since the storm made landfall two weeks ago, especially around funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Republicans — including former President Donald Trump — have falsely claimed FEMA exhausted or diverted disaster response funding to provide food, shelter and transportation to care for migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Meanwhile, Democrats have blamed Republicans for a failure to pass more disaster relief as part of a stopgap government funding deal last month.
Trump traveled to Georgia last week to survey Hurricane Helene’s devastation. The 2024 GOP presidential nominee used the trip to the battleground state to attack his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, arguing the Biden-Harris administration cares more about immigrants in the U.S. illegally than Americans.
Trump falsely said the administration’s spending on immigrants has left FEMA broke.
FEMA says it has enough funding in the short-term to address immediate needs for both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, and that there is no intermingling of funding between these two programs. Congress funds the migrant and disaster relief programs separately.
Disaster response efforts and individual assistance are funded through the Disaster Relief Fund, which is a dedicated fund for disaster efforts.
Critics — Democrats and Republicans alike — say such statements politicize what is a non-political response and spark chaos and confusion at a time when millions of Americans are looking for reliable, trustworthy sources of information about hurricane response efforts.
Hinson, though, latched on to the attack in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
In it, she wrote, “FEMA has spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars supporting illegal immigrants. Meanwhile, Americans impacted by horrific natural disasters — like Hurricane Helene — are left in the lurch.” She also wrote, “The Administration can try & spin it all they want, but there’s no excuse for spending tax dollars bailing out sanctuary cities or incentivizing illegal immigration. FEMA should be solely focused on helping Americans.”
Hinson
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Hinson said her post was based on a clip from a health appropriations committee hearing where she questioned FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell about the administration's spending priorities.
Hinson expressed concern about taxpayer dollars being used to support illegal immigration and the need for FEMA to focus solely on helping American citizens. She cited examples of resources being diverted to the Southern border, such as federal air marshals and doctors from the VA. She said the intention behind her posts was to highlight these issues.
“And the contrast here is that I don't think a taxpayer dollar, a single one, should be spent bailing out sanctuary cities or incentivizing illegal immigration,” Hinson said on a weekly press call. “And I think programs like what they've mobilized under FEMA continue to support that mission of supporting illegal immigration.
“ … Americans are tired of this administration putting illegal immigrants first while families are suffering, and that's the intention behind my tweets.”
That effort, however, started in 2019 during the Trump administration. As illegal immigration ticked up, Congress passed legislation authorizing FEMA to expand its Emergency Food and Shelter Program, which previously had been used only for people facing homelessness and hunger, to include migrant support services. FEMA gave federal money to local government, nonprofit, and faith-based organizations that provide food, shelter and supportive services to migrants officials have released into the U.S. to await court proceedings.
Miller-Meeks, at Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ fundraiser this past weekend in Des Moines, made the inaccurate claim during both an interview with The Gazette and her brief remarks to the crowd.
“We know that part of the problem is the Biden-Harris administration, part of the problem is FEMA running out of money because they’re housing illegal immigrants with almost $1 billion,” Miller-Meeks said to the hundreds gathered for the fundraiser.
Miller-Meeks made a similar assertion during the interview, referencing FEMA funding in a 2022 federal budget bill.
Her campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment or clarification on Wednesday.
Multiple U.S. House Republicans have confirmed FEMA’s clarifications.
A U.S. House Republicans’ budget committee fact sheet, obtained by a Fox News reporter, addressed some of the falsehoods that have been prevalent.
The fact sheet was obtained and reported by Fox News reporter Chad Pergram.
The fact sheet says, according to Pergram, that FEMA “has enough funding in the short-term to address immediate needs for both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton” and that there is “no funding connection between” the migrant shelter program and the Disaster Relief Fund. It goes on to say there is “no intermingling of funding between these two programs” and that “the only connection is that both programs are administered by FEMA,” according to Pergram.
And U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards, a Republican from North Carolina — which was hit by Hurricane Helene, issued an Oct. 8 press release countering many falsehoods related to federal disaster response.
Among the bullet points in Edwards’ press release are many FEMA-related clarifications, including “FEMA is NOT going to run out of money,” and “FEMA has NOT diverted disaster response funding to the border or foreign aid.”
“FEMA’s non-disaster related presence at the border has always been of major concern to me, even before Hurricane Helene, and I will continue to condemn their deployment of personnel to the southern border, but we must separate the two issues,” Edwards said in the press release.
Congress last month passed a short-term spending bill that authorized FEMA to tap $20 billion for its disaster relief fund before the law expires on Dec. 20. But the bill left out billions of additional dollars that the White House Office of Management and Budget had requested for long-term recovery efforts.
FEMA has enough funding to meet Hurricane Helene and Milton victims’ immediate needs. But if the impacts of Milton are particularly severe, they could temporarily hamper the agency’s ability to fund ongoing recovery projects nationwide, The Washington Post reported.
Congress is on recess until Nov. 12, as lawmakers focus on campaigning ahead of the Nov. 5 general election. But President Joe Biden said last week he could call lawmakers back to Washington for an emergency session to approve additional disaster aid.
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Federal disaster aid has turned into a political football on the eve of a contentious presidential election amid back-to-back hurricanes. Rumors, misinformation and conspiracy theories about the federal government’s response to Hurricane Helene have run rampant since the storm made landfall two weeks ago, especially around funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Republicans — including former President Donald Trump — have falsely claimed FEMA exhausted or diverted disaster response funding to provide food, shelter and transportation to care for migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Meanwhile, Democrats have blamed Republicans for a failure to pass more disaster relief as part of a stopgap government funding deal last month.
Trump traveled to Georgia last week to survey Hurricane Helene’s devastation. The 2024 GOP presidential nominee used the trip to the battleground state to attack his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, arguing the Biden-Harris administration cares more about immigrants in the U.S. illegally than Americans.
Trump falsely said the administration’s spending on immigrants has left FEMA broke.
FEMA says it has enough funding in the short-term to address immediate needs for both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, and that there is no intermingling of funding between these two programs. Congress funds the migrant and disaster relief programs separately.
Disaster response efforts and individual assistance are funded through the Disaster Relief Fund, which is a dedicated fund for disaster efforts.
Hinson post claims administration is ‘incentivizing illegal immigration’
Critics — Democrats and Republicans alike — say such statements politicize what is a non-political response and spark chaos and confusion at a time when millions of Americans are looking for reliable, trustworthy sources of information about hurricane response efforts.
Hinson, though, latched on to the attack in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
In it, she wrote, “FEMA has spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars supporting illegal immigrants. Meanwhile, Americans impacted by horrific natural disasters — like Hurricane Helene — are left in the lurch.” She also wrote, “The Administration can try & spin it all they want, but there’s no excuse for spending tax dollars bailing out sanctuary cities or incentivizing illegal immigration. FEMA should be solely focused on helping Americans.”
Hinson
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Hinson said her post was based on a clip from a health appropriations committee hearing where she questioned FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell about the administration's spending priorities.
Hinson expressed concern about taxpayer dollars being used to support illegal immigration and the need for FEMA to focus solely on helping American citizens. She cited examples of resources being diverted to the Southern border, such as federal air marshals and doctors from the VA. She said the intention behind her posts was to highlight these issues.
“And the contrast here is that I don't think a taxpayer dollar, a single one, should be spent bailing out sanctuary cities or incentivizing illegal immigration,” Hinson said on a weekly press call. “And I think programs like what they've mobilized under FEMA continue to support that mission of supporting illegal immigration.
“ … Americans are tired of this administration putting illegal immigrants first while families are suffering, and that's the intention behind my tweets.”
That effort, however, started in 2019 during the Trump administration. As illegal immigration ticked up, Congress passed legislation authorizing FEMA to expand its Emergency Food and Shelter Program, which previously had been used only for people facing homelessness and hunger, to include migrant support services. FEMA gave federal money to local government, nonprofit, and faith-based organizations that provide food, shelter and supportive services to migrants officials have released into the U.S. to await court proceedings.
Miller-Meeks made inaccurate FEMA claims last weekend
Miller-Meeks, at Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ fundraiser this past weekend in Des Moines, made the inaccurate claim during both an interview with The Gazette and her brief remarks to the crowd.
“We know that part of the problem is the Biden-Harris administration, part of the problem is FEMA running out of money because they’re housing illegal immigrants with almost $1 billion,” Miller-Meeks said to the hundreds gathered for the fundraiser.
Miller-Meeks made a similar assertion during the interview, referencing FEMA funding in a 2022 federal budget bill.
Her campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment or clarification on Wednesday.
Republican fact sheet counters false FEMA claims
Multiple U.S. House Republicans have confirmed FEMA’s clarifications.
A U.S. House Republicans’ budget committee fact sheet, obtained by a Fox News reporter, addressed some of the falsehoods that have been prevalent.
The fact sheet was obtained and reported by Fox News reporter Chad Pergram.
The fact sheet says, according to Pergram, that FEMA “has enough funding in the short-term to address immediate needs for both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton” and that there is “no funding connection between” the migrant shelter program and the Disaster Relief Fund. It goes on to say there is “no intermingling of funding between these two programs” and that “the only connection is that both programs are administered by FEMA,” according to Pergram.
And U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards, a Republican from North Carolina — which was hit by Hurricane Helene, issued an Oct. 8 press release countering many falsehoods related to federal disaster response.
Among the bullet points in Edwards’ press release are many FEMA-related clarifications, including “FEMA is NOT going to run out of money,” and “FEMA has NOT diverted disaster response funding to the border or foreign aid.”
“FEMA’s non-disaster related presence at the border has always been of major concern to me, even before Hurricane Helene, and I will continue to condemn their deployment of personnel to the southern border, but we must separate the two issues,” Edwards said in the press release.
Congress last month passed a short-term spending bill that authorized FEMA to tap $20 billion for its disaster relief fund before the law expires on Dec. 20. But the bill left out billions of additional dollars that the White House Office of Management and Budget had requested for long-term recovery efforts.
FEMA has enough funding to meet Hurricane Helene and Milton victims’ immediate needs. But if the impacts of Milton are particularly severe, they could temporarily hamper the agency’s ability to fund ongoing recovery projects nationwide, The Washington Post reported.
Congress is on recess until Nov. 12, as lawmakers focus on campaigning ahead of the Nov. 5 general election. But President Joe Biden said last week he could call lawmakers back to Washington for an emergency session to approve additional disaster aid.
FEMA has not diverted disaster funds to border, despite claims from Iowa Republicans
Republicans — including former President Donald Trump — have falsely claimed FEMA exhausted or diverted disaster response funding to provide food, shelter and transportation to care for migrants at the
