Were Funds Shifted Away from Hurricane Relief?
As Hurricane Florence continued to threaten the East Coast, Sen. Jeff Merkley released a document that he said shows nearly $10 million that could have been used for hurricane recovery efforts was recently diverted from the Federal Emergency Management Agency — which oversees federal response to hurricane disasters — to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees both agencies, responded, “Under no circumstances was any disaster relief funding transferred from [FEMA] to immigration enforcement efforts.”
DHS said the money taken from FEMA came from its Operations and Support account and represented savings from “management expenses that came in under budget.” According to DHS budget documents, though, the O&S account can also be used for recovery and response efforts. In any case, all told, the
