Senators fear FEMA ‘entanglement’ with border crisis could hurt disaster response mission

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John Yoo criticizes Bidens response to Helene: Failure of presidential leadership

Outnumbered panelists discuss the Biden administrations delayed efforts in responding to the devastation from Hurricane Helene.

FIRST ON FOX: A group of senators led by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., is warning the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s "entanglement" with the southern border may have limited its effectiveness in handling emergencies –  just as the Biden administration is pushing back on claims that disaster relief and resettling of migrants are connected.

"FEMA’s continued entanglement in DHS’s efforts to respond to the border crisis could impact its readiness and emergency response mission," the Republican lawmakers write. "Rather than ensuring FEMA is ready to respond to hurricanes and other emergencies, FEMA has been pulled into a border crisis mission."

In the letter obtained by Fox News Digital, the lawmakers expressed concern "on the impact of the ongoing border crisis on [FEMA’s] readiness." They cited remarks this week by DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warning that FEMA "does not have the funds to make it through the season" and his calls for Congress to convene a special session to consider supplemental funding in the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene. 

FEMA SAYS IT HAS FUNDS NEEDED FOR ‘IMMEDIATE RESPONSE AND RECOVERY'

A rescue team paddles down the Swannanoa River on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. The remnants of Hurricane Helene caused widespread flooding, downed trees, and power outages in western North Carolina. (Travis Long/The News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Other lawmakers on the letter are Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Roger Marshall, R-Kansas. Lankford is also the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Government Operations and Border Management.

Mayorkas and FEMA have also said they have enough funding to meet "immediate needs," but Mayorkas has said that current funding by continuing resolution does not provide stability.

"We have the immediate needs right now. On a continuing resolution, we have funds, but that is not a stable source of supply, if you will," he said. "This is a multibillion-dollar, multiyear recovery."

Amid those remarks, a number of conservative lawmakers and officials have pointed to approximately $650 million spent by FEMA on grants to non-profits and local authorities to resettle and aid migrants who have come across the southern border. The funding for the Shelter and Services Program (SSP) is congressionally appropriated and requires FEMA to use funding shifted over from Customs and Border Protection (CBP). It’s also a fraction of the more than $30 billion in FEMA’s budget.

DHS and the White House have pushed back against those linking the program, called the Shelter and Services Program (SSP), to the alleged shortfall in FEMA funding. 

"No disaster relief funding at all was used to support migrants housing and services. None. At. All," White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said in a memo on Friday. "In fact, the funding for communities to support migrants is directly appropriated by Congress to CBP, and is merely administered by FEMA. The funding is in no way related to FEMA’s response and recovery efforts."

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"These claims are completely false," a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "As Secretary Mayorkas said, FEMA has the necessary resources to meet the immediate needs associated with Hurricane Helene and other disasters. The Shelter and Services Program (SSP) is a completely separate, appropriated grant program that was authorized and funded by Congress and is not associated in any way with FEMA’s disaster-related authorities or funding streams."

However, the letter from senators looks beyond the separation of the funds and points to a possible broader pressure on FEMA from the crisis. They point to the mobilization of FEMA to address a surge in unaccompanied minors across the southern border in March 2021 at the beginning of the crisis.  

WASHINGTON - JANUARY 23: Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., speaks to reporters as he arrives for a vote in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, January 23, 2024.  (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

They also cite congressional briefings that found that, ahead of the end of the Title 42 public health order, the administration put a senior FEMA official as senior coordinating officials for the response to a possible surge at the border.

They also say that budget requests to Congress asked it to continue funding FEMA’s border-related work: "FEMA’s efforts responding to the border crisis could have been much more limited if your Administration would have instead used your authorities to secure the border."

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The lawmakers ask how many full-time employees from FEMA have been transferred to border-related mission duties or joined a volunteer force, how much FEMA money has been reprogrammed to a border-related mission, and if it has made any assessment on the impact of FEMA’s engagement at the border. Fox reached out to the White House, DHS and FEMA.

It comes as the impact of the border crisis continues to be a top issue ahead of the November election. Republicans have accused the Biden administration of fueling the border crisis with "open borders" policies and ending Trump-era policies. The Biden administration has accused Republicans of blocking the passage of a bipartisan border security bill, which Lankford helped write, for political purposes.