Lawmakers Renew Efforts To Protect Disaster Victims From Political Discrimination

A new bipartisan proposal would significantly overhaul FEMA and ensure that there is no political discrimination in the distribution of emergency aid.

The proposal, from Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO) and Rep. Rick Larson (D-WA), would make FEMA an independent agency that directly reports to the president, transfer significant responsibility to the states for handling natural disaster responses, and officially prohibit political discrimination. Graves, the chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, released a draft of the bill on Thursday.

“We have clearly seen that FEMA is not working as it should for Americans who’ve been impacted by disasters. Congress has passed FEMA reforms over the years, but it simply hasn’t been enough,” Graves said. “This draft bill includes substantive changes that will transform FEMA and our emergency programs to be much more state and locally driven – not micro-managed into ineffectiveness by the federal government.”

One of the key components of the draft legislation is that it would add “political affiliation” as a protected status under current federal law. Senator James Lankford (R-OK) previously introduced legislation in the Senate that would do the same thing.

This proposal comes after The Daily Wire reported in November that FEMA supervisor Marn’i Washington ordered relief workers in Lake Placid, Florida, to skip the homes of people “advertising Trump.” Washington and three other FEMA employees were fired over the instructions, which caused over 20 homes to be skipped by FEMA workers.

The draft legislation would also seek to return more agency to the states “by replacing the slow and bureaucratic rebuilding process with faster, project-based grants” and reducing “their dependence on costly consultants,” according to the committee. The lawmakers also hope to streamline the application process for requesting assistance by reducing paperwork and providing quicker responses.

Graves and Larson also want to incentivize states to make their own investments in mitigation, robust state rainy day funds, and private insurance policies.

The proposal comes as President Donald Trump has called for dramatic reforms to FEMA and floated the idea of getting rid of the agency completely. In an executive order, he called for the creation of a federal council to look at the possibility of getting rid of FEMA and shifting over responsibility to the states.

On Thursday, Acting FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton was fired and replaced with Department of Homeland Security official David Richardson. Hamilton’s ouster comes one day after he said that he personally didn’t think that it would be a good idea to get rid of FEMA.