FEMA’s response to Texas flood slowed by Noem’s cost controls
As monstrous floodwaters surged across central Texas late last week, officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency leapt into action, preparing to deploy critical search and rescue teams and life-saving resources, like they have in countless past disasters.
But almost instantly, FEMA ran into bureaucratic obstacles, four officials inside the agency told CNN.
As CNN has previously reported, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — whose department oversees FEMA — recently enacted a sweeping rule aimed at cutting spending: Every contract and grant over $100,000 now requires her personal sign-off before any funds can be released.
For FEMA, where disaster response costs routinely soar into the billions as the agency contracts with on-the-ground crews, officials say that threshold is essentially “pennies,” requiring sign-off for relatively small expenditures.
In essence, they say the order has stripped the agency of much of its autonomy at the very moment its help is needed most.
“We were operating under a clear set of guidance: lean forward, be prepared, anticipate what the state needs, and be ready to deliver it,” a longtime FEMA official told CNN. “That is not as clear of an intent for us at the moment.”
For example, as central Texas towns were submerged in rising waters, FEMA officials realized they couldn’t pre-position Urban Search and Rescue crews from a network of teams stationed regionally across the country.
In the past, FEMA would have swiftly staged these teams, which are specifically trained for situations including catastrophic floods, closer to a disaster zone in anticipation of urgent requests, multiple agency sources told CNN.
But even as Texas rescue crews raced to save lives, FEMA officials realized they needed Noem’s approval before sending those additional assets. Noem didn’t authorize FEMA’s deployment of Urban Search and Rescue teams until Monday, more than 72 hours after the flooding began, multiple sources told CNN.
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Life under the Trump 2 Dictatorship
JUST IN: The Trump administration is suing to overturn CA state laws intended to prevent cruelty against egg-laying chickens.
The administration says these laws have driven up egg prices and are preempted by a 1970 federal law. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
The administration says these laws have driven up egg prices and are preempted by a 1970 federal law. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Trump administration targets Comey and Brennan with new investigation
The Trump administration has put two repeated targets of President Donald Trump under criminal investigation, although details of what exactly they are being investigated for or how far the Justice Department intends on taking the probes are unclear.
The two targets are former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired in his first term, according to a statement that a Justice Department spokesperson provided to reporters.
Fox News reported the existence of the investigations Tuesday evening. After referring to Comey and Brennan, the spokesperson said the Justice Department does "not comment on ongoing investigations."
A lawyer for Comey had no comment. The FBI declined to comment.
"It is hard to believe that here we are 8½ years [after the 2016 presidential election], we’re still going over this ground that has been, I think, fairly well and exhaustively plowed," Brennan said. He went on to reiterate what he had previously told NBC News, that he has not been contacted by the Justice Department or the CIA about the investigation.
As for Brennan, a source briefed on the matter said CIA Director John Ratcliffe had made a criminal referral of Brennan to the Justice Department. Exactly what prompted the Comey investigation is unclear.
Ratcliffe last week released an internal CIA review that criticized Brennan’s handling of a 2017 intelligence assessment concluding that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.
Any conduct that took place during that campaign or even in most of Trump’s first term is now outside the typical five-year statute of limitations for federal crimes.
Click on the link for the full article
So this is weaponizing the DOJ to go after his enemies, and waste fraud and abuse of government resources since nothing will come of it since it's past the statute of limitations even if they were to find something (which they won't, especially since they've already been investigated by Special Counsel Durham in Trump's first term).
More analysis of this nonsense:
The Trump administration has put two repeated targets of President Donald Trump under criminal investigation, although details of what exactly they are being investigated for or how far the Justice Department intends on taking the probes are unclear.
The two targets are former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired in his first term, according to a statement that a Justice Department spokesperson provided to reporters.
Fox News reported the existence of the investigations Tuesday evening. After referring to Comey and Brennan, the spokesperson said the Justice Department does "not comment on ongoing investigations."
A lawyer for Comey had no comment. The FBI declined to comment.
"It is hard to believe that here we are 8½ years [after the 2016 presidential election], we’re still going over this ground that has been, I think, fairly well and exhaustively plowed," Brennan said. He went on to reiterate what he had previously told NBC News, that he has not been contacted by the Justice Department or the CIA about the investigation.
As for Brennan, a source briefed on the matter said CIA Director John Ratcliffe had made a criminal referral of Brennan to the Justice Department. Exactly what prompted the Comey investigation is unclear.
Ratcliffe last week released an internal CIA review that criticized Brennan’s handling of a 2017 intelligence assessment concluding that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.
Any conduct that took place during that campaign or even in most of Trump’s first term is now outside the typical five-year statute of limitations for federal crimes.
Click on the link for the full article
So this is weaponizing the DOJ to go after his enemies, and waste fraud and abuse of government resources since nothing will come of it since it's past the statute of limitations even if they were to find something (which they won't, especially since they've already been investigated by Special Counsel Durham in Trump's first term).
More analysis of this nonsense:
