fema whistleblower details 'waste' of taxpayer funds    ticle-13925109/fema-whistleblowers- waste-taxpayer-funds-staff-waiting- hotels-hurricane-helene.html   fema withheld pre-disaster money before hurricane helene and has been painfully slow in giving first responders deployment orders, multiple whistleblowers allege in a damning new letter. the bombshell allegations of mismanagement at the federal emergency management agency (fema) come just days after the agency took a beating for its boss alejandro mayorkas admitting it will not be able to foot the bill for this historic hurricane season.  now a whistleblower from fema, including others on the state and local level are telling rep. matt gaetz, r-fla., that the department has wasted and misappropriated funds in the wake of helene, which is 'exacerbating the emergency.'  further, 'hundreds if not thousands' of first responders and service members have been 'without deployment orders' with some waiting around in hotels while others 'have sat idle' as americans throughout the southeast are in dire need, the whistleblowers allege.  this news comes after fema has spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on migrants due to border czar kamala harris open border instead of prioritizing funding for americans impacted by disasters,' gaetz wrote in a scathing letter to department of homeland security (dhs) sec. mayorkas on friday. 'my office has been in contact with whistleblowers in numerous emergency-management functions at the federal, state, and local levels, and they all point to the same critical mismanagement issues.' 'fema has wasted taxpayer funds misappropriated funds, and left other federal, state, and local responders without deployment orders on the ground,' gaetz, a close ally of ex-president donald trump, wrote.
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