{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://case.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3453", "Case Condemns Misinformation On Federal Disaster Relief For Current And Pending Disasters", "2024-10-09", "2024", "2024-10", "Democrat", "House", "HI", "Ed Case", "C001055", "case.house.gov", "case", "https://case.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=27&Page=8", "scraper", "(Washington, DC) \u2013 U.S. Representative Ed Case (D-HI-01), a member of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee\u2019s Subcommittee on Homeland Security with authority over the budget of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other federal disaster relief efforts, today condemned deliberate misinformation that FEMA and related disaster assistance is being diverted from current and pending disasters to other sources.\n\n\u201cNot only is this misinformation fully inaccurate, but it is deliberately harming people and communities in most need of relief by leading them to believe incorrectly that they cannot access critical and available federal assistance,\u201d said Case, whose own state of Hawai\u2018i continues to be critically impacted by the Maui wildfires of August 2023.\n\n\u201cIn fact, Congress just approved and the President just signed into law an additional $20 billion for FEMA\u2019s Disaster Relief Fund (DRF), the federal government\u2019s main channel of disaster relief, and all of those funds have been delivered to FEMA. These funds will fully continue FEMA\u2019s disaster assistance efforts for all of Maui, recent Hurricane Helene and pending Hurricane Milton and other federally declared disasters until they require further replenishment.\u201d\n\nCase noted that in North Carolina alone, which was heavily impacted by Hurricane Helene on September 27th of this year, FEMA continues full efforts on the ground along with some two thousand other federal employees. He further noted that on Maui, FEMA and other federal partners have now provided approximately $3 billion in Maui wildfire efforts and continues its assistance with ongoing DRF funding.\n\nFEMA\u2019s DRF is the principal fund for immediate and ongoing disaster relief to affected communities. In the recent Continuing Resolution, which continued federal government funding into current Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 commencing October 1st and was passed by Congress and signed into law by the President on September 26th, the DRF, which was running low, was re-funded at $20 billion. Additionally, although federal government funding was continued through December 20, 2024 to allow for completion of the FY 2025 appropriations process and funding for most federal departments was prorated only through that date, Congress specifically authorized a full FY 2025 funding of $20 billion for the DRF and the money is fully available to FEMA.\n\n\u201cThe misinformation that FEMA does not have available federal disaster relief, and that these monies have instead been diverted to \u2018illegal immigrants\u2019, Ukraine, and elsewhere, is completely false,\u201d said Case. \u201cNot only do the perpetrators and amplifiers know that it is false, not only are they making these statements for political purposes, but they are also deliberately harming the people and communities who most need this assistance as they are effectively being told it\u2019s useless to seek assistance when they most need it.\u201d\n\nThe Administrator of FEMA, Deanne Criswell, has called the misinformation a \u201ctruly dangerous narrative,\u201d adding that it\u2019s not just inconvenient, it is actively hindering disaster relief efforts by \u201ccreating this fear of trying to reach out and help us or register to help.\u201d\n\nTo counter misinformation, FEMA has also launched a Hurricane Rumor Response webpage, which you can view here: https://www.fema.gov/disaster/current/hurricane-helene/rumor-response\n\nU.S. Representative Chuck Edwards, a Republican representing one of the districts most heavily impacted by Helene, also issued a press release dispelling misinformation from \u201cuntrustworthy sources trying to spark chaos,\u201d assuring people that Hurricane Helene was not geoengineered by the government, FEMA is not turning away donations, FEMA has not diverted disaster response funding to the border or foreign aid, FEMA is not going to run out of money and FEMA cannot seize property or land, among other things.\n\nCase continued: \u201cTo be clear, there are areas where disaster assistance is running dangerously low, in particular Small Business Administration loan relief, and it is also very clear that even the $20 billion of new appropriations into the DRF will not be sufficient to indefinitely continue disaster assistance to Maui, the communities affected by Helene and Milton and other impacted communities across the country.\n\n\u201cThis is why I have joined colleagues on my House Appropriations Committee and otherwise in strongly advocating for an emergency supplemental disaster relief package to be passed as soon as Congress reconvenes this November after the elections. My full efforts are devoted to passage of that package and to continued relief for Maui and all other communities affected by disasters.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:57:20Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://case.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3453"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.1532739736139774, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}