Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell says the agency has fired the employee accused of ordering relief aid workers to skip homes in Florida that had signs supporting Donald Trump for president.
“More than 22,000 FEMA employees every day adhere to FEMA’s core values and are dedicated to helping people before, during and after disasters, often sacrificing time with their own families to help disaster survivors. Recently, one FEMA employee departed from these values to advise her survivor assistance team to not go to homes with yard signs supporting President-elect Trump. This is a clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation. This was reprehensible,” Criswell said.
“I want to be clear to all of my employees and the American people, this type of behavior and action will not be tolerated at FEMA and we will hold people accountable if they violate these standards of conduct.
“We take our mission to help everyone before, during and after disasters seriously. This employee has been terminated and we have referred the matter to the Office of Special Counsel. I will continue to do everything I can to make sure this never happens again,” she said.
House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer of Kentucky sent a letter to Criswell on Saturday asking her to show up before the committee on Nov. 19 to answer questions about the incident.
