{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://case.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4787", "Confusion Over Federal Emergency Assistance To the Islands Draws Concern From The Hawaii Congressional Delegation", "2025-12-05", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "House", "HI", "Ed Case", "C001055", "case.house.gov", "case", "https://case.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=27&Page=2", "scraper", "(Washington, DC) \u2013 U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI), and U.S. Representatives Ed Case (HI-01) and Jill Tokuda (HI-02) joined in a letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to \u201cexpress their concern regarding execution challenges with several Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants and the negative effects on the people and institutions of Hawai\u2018i.\u201d\n\nIn their letter to Secretary Kristi Noem, whose Department of Homeland Security oversees FEMA, and Karen Evans, FEMA\u2019s Senior Official Performing Duties of Administrator, the delegation stated that they \u201chave heard from various state and local agencies and nonprofits that they have experienced significant delays and obstacles\u201d with grants that support much needed assistance in Hawai\u2018i but that \u201cthe related funds have not been properly awarded and obligated.\u201d\n\nAfter local and state agencies and nonprofits shared several examples of confusion over the way FEMA has administered the various grant programs, the delegation stated that \u201cthese examples suggest that FEMA\u2019s current grant-making operations are experiencing significant difficulties marked by challenges in timelines, communication and procedural consistency.\u201d\n\nThe delegation is calling for answers to several questions by December 31, 2025, which can be found here and below:\n\nDear Secretary Noem and Ms. Evans:\n\nWe write today to express our deep concern regarding execution challenges with several Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants and the negative effects on the people and institutions of Hawai\u2018i.\n\nWe have heard from various state and local agencies and nonprofits that they have experienced significant delays and obstacles with the Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP), the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grant Program, the Homeland Security\n\nGrant Program (HSGP) and the Emergency Management Peformance Grant (EMPG) Program. These grants are critical to the execution of much-needed assistance in Hawai\u2018i, but as explained below the related funds have not been properly awarded and obligated.\n\nEFSP Funding. FEMA announced the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 EFSP funding (Phase 42) on December 6, 2024, with Hawai\u2018i allocated a total of $285,947 through Aloha United Way. After the announcement, the first step is typically to submit a plan to the EFSP National Board Program through an online portal, after which the funds are released. However, FEMA has not created an option for funding recipients to do so, and the steps to proceed have been unavailable all year.\n\nIn a letter dated September 16, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security wrote to Congress regarding EFSP: \u201cAs reviews are conducted, FEMA continues to process and release funding for grantees that meet all statutory and programmatic requirements to avoid disruption of vital services to eligible communities.\u201d However, Aloha United Way, like other EFSP funding recipients around the country, still does not have access to its funds and has not received any communication regarding any statutory or programmatic requirements from FEMA noting any noncompliance.\n\nWhile Aloha United Way administers EFSP funding for Hawai\u2018i, the organization distributes the funds to several key organizations that depend on this funding, including the Institute for Human Services, the Hawai\u2018i Foodbank, The Salvation Army and two federally qualified health centers \u2013 the Waim\u0101nalo and Wai\u2018anae Coast Comprehensive Health Centers. These organizations provide critical support for some of the most vulnerable in our communities.\n\nFor example, in FY 2023 the Hawai\u2018i Foodbank provided 150,000 meals on O\u2018ahu and Kaua\u2018i Islands with EFSP funds. Without access to FY 2024 EFSP funds all year, it was unable to serve as many meals in 2025. As yet another example, local service providers like the East and West Hawai\u2018i Domestic Abuse Shelters now have less capacity to provide meals and support to survivors escaping violence. Aloha United Way reports that food assistance is now the number one reason Hawai\u2018i residents call their 211 Statewide Helpline, surpassing housing assistance for the first time in many years. This truly underscores the need for food assistance, including through EFSP funding, in our communities.\n\nAdditionally, the Government Accountability Office found that FEMA violated the Impoundment Control Act by failing to award appropriated FY 2025 funds to the EFSP National Board Program in a timely manner (see 1). This has resulted in real harm as delays in both FY 2024 and FY 2025 EFSP funding are now having tangible and harmful effects on communities in Hawai\u2018i and across the country.\n\nTVTP Funding. The State of Hawai\u2018i Office of Homeland Security was awarded $803,330 in FY 2024 TVTP funding to support the nation\u2019s first-ever targeted violence prevention implementation plan (see 2). The plan is an effort to preemptively address mass shootings and other violent acts by ensuring the state has the resources needed to handle unexpected incidents.3 The VTP funding is intended to support payroll costs for two positions, as well as a framework for extending targeted violence prevention best practices, training and resources to the Territory of Guam.\n\nDespite the award to a project that directly implements the statutory intent of the TVTP Program \u2013 preventing targeted violence and terrorism \u2013 the State of Hawai\u2018i\u2019s FY 2024 TVTP funding was unfortunately abruptly terminated in July 2025. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has claimed that this termination, along with nearly $18 million in funding for other awardees, was \u201cslashing waste\u201d from projects that do not \u201cprevent terrorism or targeted violence.\u201d4\n\nWe question DHS\u2019s reasoning for concluding that supporting the implementation of the nation\u2019s first-ever targeted violence prevention plan is not preventing targeted violence. We are also concerned to hear that a 2025 TVTP Notice of Funding Opportunity was not published in Grants.gov, only afforded a three-day turnaround and was only advertised to certain states.\n\nThis approach not only runs the risk of eroding trust in DHS\u2019s grantmaking process, but also jeopardizes the efforts to prevent targeted violence that DHS aims to prioritize.\n\nHSGP and EMPG. There is significant confusion around the FY 2025 periods of performance (POP) for HSGP components \u2013 State Homeland Security Program and Urban Area Security Initiative \u2013 and EMPG. Typically, both grant programs carry three-year POPs to afford emergency managers and public safety partners adequate time to plan, coordinate with partners, procure resources and adapt to the highly dynamic nature of emergency management.\n\nHowever, when FEMA sent award notices in September 2025, it detailed just a one-year POP, which is highly unusual and operationally unrealistic given that emergency grant managers have historically planned for three-year POPs. In the case of the EMPG Program, both FY 2024 and FY 2025 funding are scheduled to end on the same day: September 20, 2026.\n\nThis is unfortunately nowhere near enough time for awardees like the Hawai\u2018i Emergency Management Agency to complete its proposed projects, some of which were planned to run through 2027.\n\nThis shortened period of performance puts an unexpected burden on any subrecipients, like the City and County of Honolulu\u2019s Department of Emergency Management. In its case, for the last several years $500,000 in EMPG funding has been used to directly fund relevant staff salaries.\n\nUnder the new timeline, these positions may no longer be financially sustainable, putting certain Hawai\u2018i residents at risk of losing their jobs and leaving communities across the state more vulnerable to emergencies due to reduced staffing and diminished capacity.\n\nFor HSGP, pending litigation may alter SHSP and UASI allocations, introducing further uncertainty for public safety agencies that depend on these funds to sustain intelligence and information sharing, violent crime reduction and counter\u2013transnational drug trafficking operations. Compounding the problem, many jurisdictions, including Hawai\u02bbi, cannot access previously awarded funds (FY2021\u2013FY2024) due to federal freezes and staffing issues at FEMA because of the government shutdown.\n\nTaken together, these examples suggest that FEMA\u2019s current grant-making operations are experiencing significant difficulties marked by challenges in timelines, communication and procedural consistency. These have unfortunately extended beyond routine administrative matters and are having concrete negative effects on our constituents, communities and local governing institutions.\n\nWith all of this in mind, we request that you respond to the following questions by December 31, 2025:\n\n1. Why did FY 2024 EFSP awardees not receive their funding in a timely manner?\n\n2. What steps are DHS and FEMA taking, in coordination with the EFSP National Board\n\nProgram, to ensure that FY 2024 EFSP awardees receive their funding expeditiously and\n\nthat the FY 2025 EFSP funding process experiences no further delays?\n\n3. Why did DHS and FEMA terminate the State of Hawai\u2018i Office of Homeland Security\u2019s\n\nFY 2024 TVTP grant that supported the implementation of the nation\u2019s first targeted\n\nviolence prevention plan?\n\n4. How does DHS and FEMA plan to support targeted violence prevention in Hawai\u2018i and\n\nother localities across the country?\n\n5. Why did DHS, through FEMA, only allow a one-year POP for FY 2025 HSGP and EMPG awards?\n\n6. Given that the one-year POP decision for HSGP and EMPG may reduce the capacity of emergency managers nationwide and potentially heighten community vulnerability, how does DHS and FEMA plan to address these potential impacts?\n\nWe look forward to engaging constructively with DHS and FEMA to clarify these matters and implement the solutions needed to correct them, all toward our mutual goal of making Americans and their communities safer across the nation.\n\nWith aloha,\n\n1 Government Accountability Office. \u201cDepartment of Homeland Security \u2013 Application of the Impoundment Control\n\nAct to Federal Emergency Management Agency Fiscal Year 2025 Federal Assistance Appropriations,\u201d September\n\n15, 2025,https://www.gao.gov/assets/890/881507.pdf.\n\n2 Department of Homeland Security. \u201cFiscal Year 2024 Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grantee\n\nAbstracts,\u201d last updated December 12, 2024, https://www.dhs.gov/fiscal-year-2024-targeted-violence-and-terrorism-prevention-grantee-abstracts\n\n3 Department of Homeland Security. \u201cState of Hawai\u2018i Office of Homeland Security Publishes a New Targeted\n\nViolence Prevention Plan,\u201d April 10, 2024, https://www.dhs.gov/archive/news/2024/04/10/state-hawaii-office-homeland-security-new-targted-violence-prevention-plan\n\n4 Department of Homeland Security. \u201cDHS Axes Wasteful, Misdirected Grants, Saves Taxpayers $18.5M,\u201d July 17,\n\n2025, https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/07/17/dhs-axes-wasteful-misdirected-grants-saves-taxpayers-185m.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "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=4787"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7914770394563675, "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"}