As Florida recovers from one of its most devastating hurricane seasons in its history, several of the state's Republican representatives have been questioned after voting against supplementing disaster relief in a government funding extension on September 25, one day before Helene made landfall.
To make matters worse, some of them also echoed disinformation related to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), including that it lacked necessary funds because it was sending them to undocumented immigrants, claims that have been debunked by FEMA heads.
Amid this context, data collected by the Carnegie Endowment's Sarah Labowitz through Freedom of Information Act requests has revealed that Florida has received more FEMA direct relief dollars than any other state since 2015, followed by Louisiana and Texas, Axios reports. Floridians received more than $2.5 billion through FEMA's Individuals and Households Program (IHP) between January 2015 and April 2024.
The database covers 170 incidents for which IHP was activated, including hurricanes, floods, fires and more. In all, FEMA spent about $12.7 billion on IHP over the five-year period, compared to about $52.3 billion on "Public Assistance," which helps fund community rebuilding efforts.
On October 2, the subject of FEMA funds was thrust into the limelight when Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters in a news conference that the agency could meet immediate needs but did not have enough funding to make it through the hurricane season.
Trump and other Republicans jumped at the comments and made unsubstantiated claims that disaster funds had been diverted to immigration-related funding, which is also part of FEMA's budget, albeit from different sources as agency heads were quick to point out.
"They stole the FEMA money, just like they stole it from a bank, so they could give it to their illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them this season," Trump said earlier this month, during a rally in Michigan.
On Tuesday, a poll by the Harvard CAPS and The Harris revealed that two-thirds of Americans believe the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) should not provide housing for undocumented immigrants. When broken down by political parties , 51% of Democrats felt FEMA money should not go to housing undocumented immigrants, while 49% disagreed. In contrast, 80% of Republicans believed the agency's funds should not be used for this purpose, while 20% felt otherwise.
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