T&I Members Press FEMA Administrator on Disaster Readiness, Response & Recovery

Press Release

"On March 17th, an email of yours provided to the Committee in response to these oversight letters showed that you emailed Secretary Mayorkas that both you and FEMA's Region 3 Administrator had discussed the current state of coordination based on her observations… On the following day, on March 18th, you received an email from the Secretary thanking you for supporting the FEMA Region 3 Administrator's dedication to the border coordination with IMAT support for a 30-day period. Now, the IMAT teams are specialists, as I understand it, that deal with disasters. Does that mean you and the Secretary agree there's a disaster on the border?...

I guess by transposition then, if it's not a disaster, and it's to create this team, then we're saying that apparently Secretary Mayorkas and [the] Department of Homeland Security doesn't have what it needs, is not equipped to handle what's happening on the southern border, because they're calling on you. You're resource-challenged by your admission. You even were concerned, per your email. Then in November you emailed the Secretary indicating that he had requested support again from your Region 3 Administrator on the border. And I would remind you that Region 3 covers Pennsylvania, and the district I am proud to represent, and I'm concerned about those folks that are paying the taxes for FEMA to support them. And to remind everyone that Region 3… had [11] major disaster declarations, not including COVID, during that period… How many personnel, how many people did FEMA send to the border and what was the duration, since I can't find out from these emails?"

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