FEMA Chief Brown Paid Millions in False Claims to Help Bush Win Florida
Votes
By Jason Leopold
The Free Press
Monday 19 September 2005
Michael Brown, the embattled head of the Federal Emergency Management
Agency, approved payments in excess of $31 million in taxpayer money to
thousands of Florida residents who were unaffected by Hurricane Frances
and three other hurricanes last year in an effort to help President Bush
win a majority of votes in that state during his reelection campaign,
according to published reports.
"Some Homeland Security sources said FEMA's efforts to distribute
funds quickly after Frances and three other hurricanes that hit the key
political battleground state of Florida in a six-week period last fall
were undertaken with a keen awareness of the looming presidential
elections, according to a May 19 Washington Post story.
Homeland Security sources told the Post that after the hurricanes
that Brown "and his allies [recommended] him to succeed Tom Ridge as
Homeland Security secretary because of their claim that he helped deliver
Florida to President Bush by efficiently responding to the Florida
hurricanes.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel uncovered emails from Florida Gov. Jeb
Bush that confirmed those allegations and directly implicated Brown as
playing politics at the expense of hurricane victims.
"As the second hurricane in less than a month bore down on Florida
last fall, a federal [FEMA] consultant predicted a "huge mess" that could
reflect poorly on President Bush and suggested that his re-election staff
be brought in to minimize any political liability, records show, the
Sentinel reported in a March 23 story.
"Two weeks later, a Florida official summarizing the hurricane
response wrote that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was handing
out housing assistance "to everyone who needs it without asking for much
information of any kind."
The records the Sentinel obtained were contained in hundreds of pages
of Gov. Jeb Bush's storm-related e-mails the paper received from the
governor's office under the threat of a lawsuit.
The explosive charges of mismanagement of disaster relief funds made
against Brown and FEMA were confirmed earlier this year following a four-
month investigation by Richard Skinner, the Department of Homeland
Security's inspector general. Skinner looked into media reports alleging
that residents of Miami-Dade were receiving windfall payments from FEMA
to cover losses from Hurricane Frances they never incurred.
Hurricane Frances hit Hutchinson Island, FL, about 100 miles north of
Dade County, on Sept. 5. Miami-Dade officials described damage there from
heavy rain and winds of up to 45 mph as "minimal," according to the Post.
Indeed. A May 14 story in the Sun-Sentinel said: "Miami-Dade County
residents collected Hurricane Frances aid for belongings they didn't own,
temporary housing they never requested and cars worth far less than the
government paid, according to a federal audit that questions millions in
storm payouts.
Responding to those allegations, Brown held a news conference Jan. 11
blaming the overpayments on a "computer glitch and said the
disbursements were far less than the $31 million that was cited in news
reports and involved 3,500 people. Moreover, to silence his critics who
said that Hurricane Frances barely touched down in Miami-Dade, Brown
cited a report by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
to prove that there were legitimate hurricane conditions there and as a
result that a bulk of the payments was legitimate.
But according to the Sun-Sentinel, NOAA had refuted the weather maps
Brown claimed to have obtained from them. That report prompted
Congressman Robert Wexler to send off a scathing letter to President Bush
calling for Brown's resignation.
Bush rebuffed Wexler. However, the DHS' inspector general launched a
probe to determine how widespread the problems were involving
overpayments to Miami-Dade residents. In May, the inspector general
released his report. What he found was damning.
"The review found waste and poor controls in every level of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency's assistance program and challenges
the designation of Miami-Dade as a disaster area when the county "did not
incur any hurricane force winds, tornados or other adverse weather
conditions that would cause widespread damage."
In identifying one of the overpayments, the inspector general's
report said FEMA paid $10 million to replace hundreds of household items
even though only a bed was reported to be damaged, the inspector
general's report said.
"Millions of individuals and households became eligible to apply for
[money], straining FEMA's limited inspection resources to verify damages
and making the program more susceptible to potential fraud, waste and
abuse," the report states.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs committee, said during a committee hearing in May
that Brown "approved massive payouts to replace thousands of televisions,
air conditioners, beds and other furniture, as well as a number of cars,
without receipts, or proof of ownership or damage, and based solely on
verbal statements by the residents, sometimes made in fleeting encounters
at fast-food restaurants.
"It was a pay first, ask questions later approach," Collins said.
"The inspector general's report identifies a number of significant
control weaknesses that create a potential for widespread fraud,
erroneous payments and wasteful practices."
But the most interesting charge against Brown is that he helped speed
up payments in Florida and purposely bypassed FEMA's lengthy reviews
process for distributing funds in order to help Bush secure votes in the
state during last year's presidential election.
Bob Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of
America, who was a top federal flood insurance official in the 1970s and
1980s and a Texas insurance commissioner in the 1990s, told the Post
"that in the vast majority of hurricanes, other than those in Florida in
2004, complaints are rife that FEMA has vastly underpaid hurricane
victims. The Frances overpayments are questionable given the timing of
the election and Florida's importance as a battleground state.
FEMA consultant Glenn Garcelon actions certainly lends credibility to
questions raised by Hunter.
On Sept. 2, 2004, Garcelon, wrote a three-page memo titled "Hurricane
Frances - Thoughts and Suggestions."
"The Republican National Convention was winding down, and President
Bush had only a slight lead in the polls against Democrat John Kerry,
the Sentinel reported in its March 23 story. "Winning Florida was key to
the president's re-election. FEMA should pay careful attention to how it
is portrayed by the public, Garcelon wrote in the memo, conveying "the
team effort theme at every opportunity" alongside state and local
officials, the insurance and construction industries, and relief agencies
such as the Red Cross.
Gov. Bush received the memo Sept. 30, 2004 shortly before a swell of
payments made its way to residents in Miami-Dade who did not sustain
damage as a result of Hurricane Frances.
A couple of weeks before Gov. Bush received the memo from Garcelon,
Orlando J. Cabrera, executive director of the Florida Housing Finance
Corp. and a member of the governor's Hurricane Housing Work Group, said
in a different memo to Gov. Bush that FEMA was allocating short-term
rental assistance to "everyone who needs it, without asking for much
information of any kind," the Sentinel reported.
In addition, "standard housing assistance," of up to $25,600, Cabrera
wrote, is "liberally provided without significant scrutiny of the request
made during the initial months; scrutiny increases remarkably and the
package is far more stringent after an unspecified time."
The DHS audit report found that, under Brown, FEMA erroneously
distributed to Miami-Dade residents:
$8.2 million in rental assistance to 4,308 applicants in the county who
"did not indicate a need for shelter" when they registered for help. In
60 cases reviewed by auditors, inspectors deemed homes unsafe without
explanation, and applicants never moved out.
$720,403 to 228 people for belongings based on their word alone.
$192,592 for generators, air purifiers, wet/dry vacuum cleaners,
chainsaws and other items without proof that they were needed to deal
with the hurricane. Three applicants got generators for their homes, plus
rental assistance from FEMA to live somewhere else.
$15,743 for three funerals without sufficient documentation that the
deaths were due to the hurricane.
$46,464 to 64 residents for temporary housing even though they had
homeowners insurance. FEMA funds cannot be used when costs are covered by
insurance.
$17,424 in rental assistance to 24 people who reported that their homes
were not damaged.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/092005S.shtml
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