Daily Caller
FEMA Doled Out Millions Pushing ‘Equity,’ Prioritizing ‘Underserved Communities’ Leading Up To Hurricane Season
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in May 2023 launched a $12 million grant program designed to increase “equity” in disaster responses by making greater investments in communities with high concentrations of racial and sexual minorities, documents show.
FEMA’s 2023 Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program sought to disburse multi-million dollar grants designed to bolster disaster preparedness “equity” for what it called “underserved communities,” a label later defined in grant documents as “populations sharing a particular characteristic, as well as geographic communities, who have been systematically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, social and civic life.” Examples of these groups cited in the FEMA documents include African Americans, Hispanics, Middle Easterners, LGBT people and people living in rural areas, among others.
“LGBTQIA people, and people who have been disadvantaged, already are struggling,” FEMA emergency management specialist Tyler Atkins said in a leaked Zoom recording that surfaced on Sunday. “They already have their own things to deal with. So, you add a disaster on top of that, it’s just compounding on itself.”
Maggie Jarry, an emergency management specialist at the Department of Health and Human Services, responded to Atkins by stressing that emergency management is moving away from providing “the greatest good to the greatest amount of people” and working towards “disaster equity.”
FEMA Disaster Preparedness Meeting:
"We should focus our efforts on LGBTQIA people… they struggled before the storm"
"FEMA relief is no longer about getting the greatest good for the greatest amount of people…. It's about disaster equity." pic.twitter.com/IqXeKI8OTT
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 7, 2024
Black and gay people disproportionately live in areas where the effects of climate change, alongside poor infrastructure and a lack of resources, make natural disasters more dangerous, according to the FEMA documents. The agency used this position to argue that investments in these communities are needed to “effectively address equity in emergency management.”
FEMA instructed entities applying for grant funding under the program to use the Biden-Harris administration’s Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) to identify disadvantaged communities where they would spend their federal grant dollars.
CEJST provides users with a map of every county the federal government considers “underserved” for the purposes of federal grantmaking. Many of the counties hit hardest by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina and northern Georgia were made ineligible for funding through this program as a result of CEJST’s designations.
Hurricane Helene had left 227 people dead as of Saturday and damages caused by the storm could reach as high as $35 billion, according to estimates from the reinsurance company Gallagher Re. North Carolinians have received $27 million in individual assistance approved by FEMA, The Associated Press reported.
Entities that requested FEMA grant funding had their applications evaluated based on whether or not they selected communities labeled as “underserved” by CEJST as well as the degree to which they centered equity in their proposal.
“To advance considerations of equity in awarding RCPGP grant funding, FEMA will add additional points to the scores of projects that will benefit disadvantaged communities,” the grant document reads.
“We are expecting another hurricane hitting,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Wednesday “FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season.”
FEMA’s shortfall in funding comes after the agency spent nearly $1 billion on migrant assistance programs in the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years.
Hurricane Milton is a Category 5 storm on track to hit the Florida Gulf Coast on Wednesday, CNN reported. Florida is still recovering from Helene.
FEMA did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
The FBI’s Salt Lake City field office released surveillance photos of a person of interest in the fatal shooting of Kirk, urging the public to submit tips as the manhunt intensifies. Appearing on “The Ingraham Angle,” Mauro pointed to unreleased surveillance footage and ballistic evidence as key factors likely to lead to the suspect’s identification.
“The videotape that they pulled the still from, is one of the real things here that is almost certainly going to be how we are going to get there. Somebody is going to recognize him. Somebody probably already has,” Mauro said. “My understanding is that they are still sitting on video that they have not released. That video, likely, would show, let’s say, the walk, so even if you are on the fence, walks are very, very telling. People recognize them.”
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Mauro said investigators are far from stalled, noting that authorities have several promising leads that could help pinpoint the suspect’s path after the shooter fled the campus.
WATCH:
“So, if we don’t get something soon, expect more videotape, maybe something about where the scope and the rifle came from. Scopes can be bought separate. They can trace this kind of thing,” Mauro said.
“They have a number of notes to go down here. It’s not like they have not made any progress. It looks to me like they can track him leaving campus. They can use the video to get him leaving campus. It goes dark when he leaves campus and gets out into the neighborhood. And according to what I have heard, likely, was hopping backyards, still in the area, and then you have to assume maybe got hold of a vehicle, got to a bicycle, a motorcycle or whatever. And then he got out of Dodge.”
Mauro said investigators “are making progress” despite early missteps and public confusion over leads.
“Every investigation has its bad leads and blind alleys. The difference in this case is that they were more public than you usually get. Director Patel was being particularly transparent in what they were doing and what was going on. And so the information came out and looked like they had somebody at one point there. But this happens in many, many investigations,” Mauro told host Laura Ingraham. “I do think that they are making progress.”
Authorities said the shooter arrived on campus shortly after 11:50 a.m., climbed a stairwell to the rooftop, opened fire, and fled into a nearby neighborhood. At a Thursday morning press conference, officials said they recovered a weapon from a wooded area and obtained video footage of the suspect, described as a male of college age.
The FBI released photos of a “person of interest” wearing dark sunglasses, a black hat, and a black shirt, and urged the public to help identify him. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information that leads to the identification and arrest of the person or people responsible for Kirk’s murder. Tipsters can call 1-800-CALL-FBI and submit photos through the bureau’s online portal.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/Fox News)
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
Law enforcement officers released new surveillance footage Thursday that they say tracks the alleged assassin of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk as he fled the scene at Utah Valley University.
The FBI held a press conference Thursday to share new footage of the suspect fleeing the scene of Kirk’s assassination as agents asked the public for help in identifying him. Commissioner Beau Mason walked reporters through the enhanced video, pointing out critical details investigators believe will help identify the suspect.
“You will see a distinctive t-shirt with an American flag, and it appears to have an eagle on it. There’s a baseball cap with a triangle on it and a pair of sunglasses. All distinctive, all things we would ask the public to look for and try to identify if they know someone who has those items, who’s been seen wearing those items. We are looking for all of that information,” Mason said.
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WATCH:
“This is the video evidence we utilized to track his movements and to locate that firearm in that wooded area following the discovery of this evidence.”
Earlier Thursday the FBI released photos of “the person of interest” as agents from the bureau’s Salt Lake City field office posted two images showing a man dressed in dark clothing, a baseball cap and sunglasses. The FBI posted additional photos of the person of interest tied to the murder and urged the public to submit tips through its digital portal.
Kirk, 31, was gunned down Wednesday while speaking to students during an outdoor campus event. Authorities said the shot came from a rooftop approximately 200 yards away. Investigators later recovered ammunition in a wooded area near the university but have not confirmed whether it is tied to the shooter.
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