The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been the butt of dark jokes since Hurricane Katrina. George W. Bush infamously defended the then-head of the agency, Michael Brown, saying "Brownie, you're doin' a heck of a job!" The phrase became sarcastic shorthand for incompetence.
Not much has changed in 20 years.
Mary Comans, CFO of FEMA, was fired today along with three colleagues for sending $59 million to New York to fund illegal alien shelter. The dismissal was the direct result of the agency defying a Trump administration executive order that specified a halt to the funding of such shelters.
NEW: Trump has fired FEMA's CFO Mary Comans after she allegedly paid $59 million to hotels in New York City housing illegal immigrants, according to the Daily Mail.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 11, 2025
Three others involved were also fired.
"That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being… pic.twitter.com/Ftg1DAkCFB
Unsurprisingly, there has been disagreement about the funding: when it was approved and by whom, its purpose, and finally, whether it can be clawed back, per the wishes of DOGE head Elon Musk.
In separate tweets, Cameron Hamilton, the acting director of FEMA, thanked DOGE for pointing out the disbursement, and stated that "@USCongress should have never passed bills in 2023 and 2024 asking FEMA to do this work. This stops now."
I want to thank the @DOGE team for making me aware of this. Effective yesterday these payments have all been suspended from FEMA. Personnel will be held accountable. @elonmusk https://t.co/UO7HVrLg7M
— Cameron Hamilton (@FEMA_Cam) February 10, 2025
But what would Washington be without some he said/she said? The New York Times reported today that Musk "claimed misleadingly that FEMA had recently sent $59 million meant for disaster relief to New York City to pay for 'high end hotels' for migrants, and who called the expenditure unlawful. New York City officials raced to clarify that the federal money had been properly allocated by FEMA under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. last year, adding that it was not a disaster relief grant and had not been spent on luxury hotels."
The Times failed to say exactly what the $59 million was intended to fund until much later in the piece, when it reveals that only $19 million was spent on luxury hotels. The rest was for food, security, and other shelters.
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The Times then claimed that the funds were not disbursed by FEMA, but rather by the Shelter and Services Program (SSP), a FEMA spinoff funded with over $650 million to deal with shelter and other services for illegal aliens. It's a disingenuous move by the writer of the piece, one Luis Ferré Sadurní, and indicative of how the left shifts blame and calls out "FALSE!" on technicalities.
Further, claims that the funding was approved under Biden in 2024 miss the point of an EO that specifically halts all specified funding.
Sadurní goes on to claim that Trump was dishonest about FEMA's exhausted budget while campaigning. "Mr. Trump, who falsely claimed on the campaign trail last year that FEMA had spent all of its budget to house migrants," he wrote. Gosh, Luis, where could he have gotten that idea? Alejandro Mayorkas, perhaps?
Mayorkas 3 months ago: FEMA is "tremendously prepared" for hurricane season
— Gregg Re (@gregg_re) October 4, 2024
Mayorkas today: FEMA is out of money and can't make it through hurricane season. "We do not have the funds"
Look at this. 3 months apart: pic.twitter.com/aX3o0NGihb
It has been a sad, slow train wreck to watch the Times abandon factual reporting in favor of newsroom-assigned apologia and/or partisan spin pieces.
As for Comans, it's surprising that she thought it was prudent to send a lottery-sized payout to New York City in the current environment, regardless of how many justifications she and her former colleagues were able to conjure.
