Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas appeared via satellite for the daily White House press briefing on Thursday. He was there to answer questions regarding the federal response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Mayorkas was asked whether or not he felt FEMA is perpetually “underfunded” as an agency. Mayorkas gave a diplomatic but laser sharp answer directed at the do-nothing Republicans in Congress.
“Let me take a step back and widen the aperture of that question, if I may,” Mayorkas began. “A continuing resolution is not a stable way to fund the federal government.”
He was clearly referring to Republican dysfunction in Congress which has led to a series of continuing resolutions to keep our government funded.
“The disaster relief fund, and the funding of it, should be completely nonpartisan and apolitical. This is a fund that provides much-needed relief to individuals regardless of party,” Mayorkas went on. “And I have said publicly, many a time since Hurricane Helene first hit in late September, that when our brave individuals—and I say ‘our’ meaning not just federal, but federal, state, and local—reach into flooded waters to save an individual, they are not asking about that individual’s party affiliation. They are rescuing a fellow human being, and we need to be funded accordingly.”
