From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

Biden-era federal employees purposely ignored some Trump voters amid
Hurricane Milton disaster response, according to a new Department of
Homeland Security report.

The DHS’ Office of Inspector General found that at least 11 homes were
passed over by disaster survivor assistance teams because they
displayed pro-Trump signs. The OIG was stymied in a broader
investigation of alleged anti-Trump supporter bias in other disaster
responses because former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem failed to approve a contract that covered the maintenance of relevant records in a timely
manner.

Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel violated the Hatch Act
when at least one Disaster Survivor Assistance team politicized
disaster response, according to the OIG. The report attributes these
failures to insufficient training and education.

“FEMA DSA crews did not receive ethics and Hatch Act training before
deploying to disasters, DSA policies and procedures did not require
crews to explain why they skipped homes, and DSA crew leaders were not required to conduct quality control reviews of survivor interactions,”
the OIG report stated.

The report noted that Marn’i Washington, a DSA team leader, was charged
with two Hatch Act violations in 2025 for instructing her team to avoid
Trump supporters amid Hurricane Milton response. Washington engaged in political activity while on duty and used official authority to
interfere with an election, according to the Office of Special Counsel.

Washington accused Trump supporters of hostility, claiming her
instructions originated from legitimate safety concerns.

“Firstly, I’m being framed. There’s no violation of the Hatch Act. I
was simply following orders,” Washington told NewsNation in 2024.
“Safety precautions are not politically driven.”

“It just so happened that, unfortunately, most of the hostile
encounters, those running trends, did have those [Trump] campaign
signs,” Washington said.

No public decision has been disclosed in OSC's case against Washington.

“The first instance of a note indicating a DSA crew skipped a home due
to political signage occurred on October 19, 2024. A subsequent note on October 22 stated, ‘did not visit due to Trump flag.’ Nine additional
notes concerning political signage followed,’” the OIG report noted
regarding Washington's crew.

Unfortunately, the OIG was unable to determine just how many crews
followed Washington's anti-Trump lead. The Field Assessment and
Collection Tools used to document government interactions with civilian survivors became unavailable to investigators after Noem ignored
requests to provide funding.

“We could not determine if crews skipped locations for unallowable
reasons during other disasters because the support contract for FEMA’s
Field Assessment and Collection Tools ended in September 2025 when then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Noem did not act on
FEMA’s request to fund it before expiration,” the report reads. “We
requested access to the data in March 2025, but FEMA delays prevented
us from obtaining the data prior to the contractor abruptly shutting
down the system.”

"FEMA exported and retained all survivor assistance data, but only in a non-readable format that cannot be searched or analyzed unless FEMA
procures a new system to restore access," a source familiar with the
data told Blaze News. "DSA crews conducted their work using electronic
tablets connected to this system and did not use paper notes, so there
are no hard-copy records to review."

If the contract was renewed and the system remained active, the DHS investigators planned to review more natural disaster responses to see
whether other DSA crews skipped homes that displayed Trump signs.

The OIG provided FEMA with several recommendations to prevent
politicized disaster response in the future, including Hatch Act
training and a mandatory survivor interaction documentation process for response teams. FEMA concurred with the OIG’s assessment, according to
the report.

“This situation eroded public trust in FEMA’s ability to treat everyone impartially, offer unbiased and consistent assistance, and ensure equal
access to resources and tools,” the report reads.

We may never know just how many Trump-supporting Americans were
abandoned by the government officials responsible for helping them.

"The loss of access prevented us from assessing whether political bias
in canvassing was a systemic issue during the scope period of this
audit," according to the OIG.

FEMA temporarily suspended door-to-door disaster response in 2025 while
it reviewed its operations.

FEMA and the DHS did not respond to requests for comment. Washington
could not be reached for comment. Noem could not be reached through the
State Department or her lawyer of record.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/fema-trump-biden-hurricane-noem

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