Republican Rep. French Hill shut down Fox News host Maria Bartiromo’s false on-air claim that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is “out of money” to handle crises in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and with the looming threat of Hurricane Milton.
During Hill’s Tuesday appearance on Fox Business, Bartiromo slammed President Joe Biden, saying that FEMA “running out of money” was “the biggest failure of this administration.”
“How is it possible that FEMA is out of money?” Bartiromo asked the representative from Arkansas.
Hill’s response was blunt.
“FEMA is not out of money,” he said, adding that “Congress is ready to replenish the funding as soon as we get back to Washington. They have the money to take care of Florida, take care of North Carolina, and take care of Georgia. They need to get about delivering it and listening to what their governors are asking and meeting those governors’ requests.”
Bartiromo had seemed to be referencing comments made last week by Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, in which he said, “We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have. We are expecting another hurricane hitting. … FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season.”
The White House said Monday that FEMA “has sufficient funding to both support the response to Hurricane Milton and continue to support the response to Hurricane Helene — including funding to support first responders and provide immediate assistance to disaster survivors.”
Mayorkas also told MSNBC host Jen Psaki Monday, “Everybody should rest confident that FEMA has the resources” to deal with Hurricane Milton, adding that the organization has around 900 personnel deployed to Florida in advance of the storm’s arrival.
In his appearance Tuesday, Hill called out the secretary’s seemingly contradictory statements.
“I don’t think anyone in Congress has any confidence in Mayorkas or what Mayorkas says,” Hill said.
Bartiromo, however, went on to offer another dubious claim—pushed by GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump—that FEMA money was being “used for illegal immigrants” instead of hurricane relief.
Hill immediately undercut this argument as well, correctly pointing out that the money Bartiromo was referencing was “out of a completely different account … not connected to the hurricane relief.”
FEMA’s website specifically responds to the false claim on its dedicated fact-checking page.
“No money is being diverted from disaster response needs. FEMA’s disaster response efforts and individual assistance is funded through the Disaster Relief Fund, which is a dedicated fund for disaster efforts,” it reads. “Disaster Relief Fund money has not been diverted to other, non-disaster related efforts.”
