FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Homeland Republicans Probe LA, NYC, Chicago Over Receipt of FEMA Funds During the Biden Border Crisis
WASHINGTON—House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN), Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability Chairman Josh Brecheen (R-OK), and Subcommittee on Emergency Management and Technology Chairman Dale Strong (R-AL) sent letters to the mayors of New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, investigating whether federal funds were given to entities engaged in or facilitating illegal activities during the Biden-Harris administration’s historic border crisis. The Committee is concerned that funds awarded, obligated, or distributed through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Shelter and Services Program (SSP) helped incentivize illegal immigration.
In letters addressed to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, the Chairmen request documents and communications between each city and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) relating to the SSP from October 1, 2023 to January 19, 2025; all applications submitted to DHS by the city for SSP-Competitive awards; all justification documents submitted to DHS during the grant process; information on subapplicants that received subawards from the city for these awards; and information on any employee, contractor or volunteer of the city and any employee, contractor, or volunteer of any SSP-Competitive subapplicants that received subawards from the city. Read the full letters to Mayor Adams, Mayor Bass, and Mayor Johnson.
Read more in the New York Post via Josh Christenson.
In the letter to Mayor Adams, the Chairmen wrote, “The Committee on Homeland Security is conducting oversight of the Department of Homeland Security’s Shelter and Services Program (SSP), which grants financial support to non-federal entities that provide sheltering and related activities to noncitizen migrants following their release from the Department.”
The Chairmen continued, “On February 11, 2025, Cameron Hamilton, the Senior Official Performing the Duties of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator, filed a brief in opposition to a challenge to an Office of Management and Budget directive that pauses certain federal funding, in which he stated that FEMA temporarily paused funding for SSP ‘based on significant concerns that the funding is going to entities engaged in or facilitating illegal activities.’ Based on Mr. Hamilton’s assertions, the Committee is concerned that funds awarded, obligated, and distributed through the SSP were approved under the Biden-Harris administration without proper oversight of the recipients and their programs.”
The Chairmen concluded, “Congress authorized $650 million for the SSP program in fiscal year (FY) 2024 through the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024. FEMA allocated and distributed $59,302,125.07 to the City of New York for FY2024 through its SSP-Allocated (SSP-A) program and $22,169,838 to the City of New York for FY2024 through its SSP-Competitive (SSP-C) program. The Committee seeks a full accounting of funds awarded to New York for the FY2024 SSP to ensure its compliance with federal law.”
Background:
Last month, DHS reversed an $80 million FEMA payment to New York City and fired four individuals “for circumventing leadership to unilaterally make egregious payments for luxury NYC hotels for migrants.”
On October 11, 2024, Chairman Green sent a letter to then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding answers about the Biden-Harris administration’s use of FEMA funds for programs to assist illegal aliens after claiming the agency would not have the funds to make it through hurricane season.
By the time President Biden left office in January of this year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recorded nearly 11 million encounters of inadmissible aliens nationwide, including more than eight million at the Southwest border––an unprecedented number during a four-year span. In addition to those encounters, CBP recorded another two million gotaways.
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