Upcoming FEMA Scandal Alert: Story to Watch

[mburbank]

Various independent press outlets have begin connectiong the dots on a story the Florida Sun sentinel broke. To me, this has all the earmarks of a story the main stream press will be late to the table on, but will blow up into something large.

Here's the basic drift. After Hurricane Frances, FEMA, under Brownie's leadership, dolled out millions in relief money to Floridians who either sustained no hurricane damage or neither offered or were asked for any sort of evidence that they had. There is mouting evidence the money was spread around to help 'get out the bush vote'.

like I said, the story is sketchy right now, but the part that seems solid is that FEMA gave away relief monies and asked for no proof whatever that people they paid had sustained damages. Stay tuned.

[mburbank]

The DHS audit report found that, under Brown, FEMA erroneously distributed to Miami-Dade residents:

* $8.2 million in rental assistance to 4,308 applicants in the county who "did not indicate a need for shelter" when they registered for help. In 60 cases reviewed by auditors, inspectors deemed homes unsafe without explanation, and applicants never moved out.

* $720,403 to 228 people for belongings based on their word alone.

* $192,592 for generators, air purifiers, wet/dry vacuum cleaners, chainsaws and other items without proof that they were needed to deal with the hurricane. Three applicants got generators for their homes, plus rental assistance from FEMA to live somewhere else.

* $15,743 for three funerals without sufficient documentation that the deaths were due to the hurricane.

* $46,464 to 64 residents for temporary housing even though they had homeowners insurance. FEMA funds cannot be used when costs are covered by insurance.

* $17,424 in rental assistance to 24 people who reported that their homes were not damaged.

* $97,500 for 15 automobiles with a "blue book" value of $56,140. In general, the report states that FEMA approved claims for damaged vehicles without properly verifying that the losses were caused by the storm.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

This type of scandal could open up on everbody though.

Clinton declared more natural disasters than any other president, and conservatives often threw this very same accusation of vote buying at him.

I think FEMA has flown under the radar for several years now, and there may be more to it than what we believe.

[mburbank]

I guess the question is

A.) Are there any smoking guns. There are references to Jeb Bush emails, but I haven't see those substantiated yet.

and

B.) While other administrations may have thrown Fema cash around, did any of them do it without asking for much or in some cases any back up. This administration is mking a habbit of playing pretty fast and loose with cash, ie. the 9 billion in Iraq reconstruction money that has no paper trail at all.

I don't know the answr to either of thee questions. We'll see though.

[Abcdxxxx]

Well the more blatant scandal I don't see anyone bothering with is Bush overtly bragging that he's going to give relief money his father raised with Clinton to Religious organizations to "pay them back". Since when did charitable organizations expect to be paid back??? Is the Catholic Church loaning to the Federal Government? Are they providing diapers on credit to FEMA is that it?

[mburbank]

Whoaa, I missed that story! Can you source this one? I want to look into it.

[Abcdxxxx]

"The cash needed to support the armies of compassion is great, and Americans have given generously. For example, the private fundraising effort led by former Presidents Bush and Clinton has already received pledges of more than $100 million. Some of that money is going to the Governors to be used for immediate needs within their states. A portion will also be sent to local houses of worship to help reimburse them for the expense of helping others. This evening the need is still urgent, and I ask the American people to continue donating to the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, other good charities, and religious congregations in the region."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/relea...0050915-8.html

We know they're going to shuffle Katrina kids to private schools using a makeshift version of the voucher system, and now he's going to figure out a sly way to start giving kickbacks to the 700 club or whatever Christian prophet he's dying to buy a new island.

[mburbank]

Oh my GOD! That is outrageous! If people want to make donations to churches and other faith based organizations they have that choice. If those organizations then use some of that money to legitimately refill their coffers for the next disaster, all well and good. If they use the money to 'reimburse' their costs, well, donor beware and it's a fine line and all that.

But to take money donated to the RELIEF EFFORT and give it to 'faith based organziations' chosen by who knows who, as if their acts of charity had been pre-contracted by the government sidesteps all sorts of laws, creates future expectations with no legal basis to support them, makes after the fact choices not intended by donors, invites corruption, etc. etc. etc.

Do you suppose there will be any transperency about where this money goes and who it ends up helping?

[KevinTheOmnivore]

I can't find anything else on the web verifying that this is even happening, let alone whether it's good or bad.

I saw that Texas may get reimbursed for placing displaced private school students into their schools, because otherwise, Texas is covering the costs for books, material, lunches, etc.

This could simply mean that they are going to cover the cost of charter school books. Or stuff like that.

[Abcdxxxx]

It's mostly shocking that he did it outright and didn't just try to slip it in there. I really haven't seen any criticism over the idea either!

What decent faith based charity wants to be paid back for the expenses they put out anyway?

First of, that would mean the Federal government would have to admit exactly how and where they failed, and dispurse the money accordingly....or .... just toss it around to all their favorite preachers I guess. Maybe you can file a claim according the amount of bibles you handed out, and get reimbursed that way ?

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Again, I think maybe we should save our outrage until after we see some sort of line-item thingy??

[mburbank]

It's not like I have a limmited supply of outrage.

[Abcdxxxx]

I'm outraged by just the idea of it. I doubt we'll ever see line item accountability. Do we really know where any charitable donations go?

[KevinTheOmnivore]

No, but we generally know where government money goes (I guess).

I think most of the charities in that area have been tapped out of their resources, especially if all of the stories of FEMA's incompetence are true.

I dunno, I'll reserve my scrutiny until I can find out more about it (which I'm having a hard time doing).