The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an entity that many believe has outlived its usefulness and should be closed down. Some may find this statement surprising; however, the main, if not only, legitimate role of government is to safeguard the freedom and property of its citizens, which includes providing alerts for and aiding in the recovery from both natural and man-made catastrophes – tasks that FEMA is meant to handle.
In theory, at least. But if that were the case, then it would imply that all natural disasters prior to 1979 were completely disregarded and unassisted since FEMA was not in existence before that year. Nevertheless, the main argument for advocating the shutdown of FEMA is not based on historical reasons; rather, it is primarily due to the fact that the agency has acted independently, resulting in egregious mismanagement of taxpayer funds.
According to various government investigations into its expenditures, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has mishandled billions of dollars throughout the years.
The government agency’s response to COVID, hurricanes, floods and housing migrants have all come under fire for being wasteful and going largely unchecked — as the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been sent in to analyze its spending.
The most recent audit of the embattled disaster response agency claimed it mismanaged nearly $10 billion during the COVID pandemic between 2020 and 2023.
FEMA even approved a grant of $1.1 billion despite it only being supported by only a single piece of paper with no itemized costs, the Jan. 30 audit by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General found.
The request was also “not prepared by a licensed professional engineer or cost-estimating professional,” according to the 36-page report.
Now, mind you, the COVID panic was the source of a lot of wasteful spending by multiple branches of the federal government. But FEMA’s malfeasances didn’t begin or end there.
First, on Monday, RedState’s own streiff documented how the Department of Government Waste (DOGE) under Elon Musk caught FEMA staffers openly defying their boss – you know, the President of the United States – in persisting to dump millions into luxury hotel rooms for illegal aliens.
