{"id":285,"date":"2026-06-17T18:14:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T18:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marketrelocationreport.com\/?p=285"},"modified":"2026-06-17T18:14:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T18:14:22","slug":"fema-omb-noms-grilled-on-alleged-political-sway-in-government-assistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketrelocationreport.com\/?p=285","title":{"rendered":"FEMA, OMB noms grilled on alleged political sway in government assistance"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In a hearing on Wednesday that featured nominees to lead a wide range of federal agencies, Senate Democrats on the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee focused their questioning on differences in politics possibly preventing individuals and groups from receiving government services.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more AI is taking background checks from \u2018months to hours,\u2019 clearance agency says<\/a><\/p>\n

Cameron Hamilton, the nominee to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was asked repeatedly about a March analysis from E&E News <\/em>that found President Donald Trump approved 23% of disaster funding requests from Democratic-led states compared with 89% for Republican-run states.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is unacceptable,\u201d said Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. \u201cThe idea that Americans who need help in the wake of a tornado, or a flood or a hurricane should be treated differently based upon politics is shameful. It is un-American.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hamilton agreed that partisanship should not play a role in approving disaster assistance and expressed doubt that the president would reject aid to a state solely because it leans Democrat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The nominee was also pressed about whether FEMA should increase staffing levels after the Trump administration pushed out thousands of employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are an exceptional group of public servants, but there needs to be enough of them on the ground,\u201d said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. \u201cAnd you will lose more of them unless you are adequately staffed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hamilton didn\u2019t directly answer the question, but he did back Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin\u2019s recent decision to bring back several hundred workers who had been let go.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year, Trump fired Hamilton from serving as the acting chief of FEMA after he testified against the elimination of the agency, which contravened the president\u2019s position at the time. In May, however, an administration-backed review panel recommended preserving FEMA but urged state and local governments to take on a larger share of disaster response and recovery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hamilton also told the senators that he wants to do a \u201csignificant IT overhaul\u201d of the agency and, if confirmed, would release a 30-day report on areas where FEMA can reform.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s Office of Management and Budget deputy director nominee, Hal Duncan, was also asked about political influence on funding decisions. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said that a proposed rule from the agency to overhaul the federal grantmaking process, including by requiring political appointees to approve awards to ensure they advance the president\u2019s priorities, was creating a \u201cclimate of fear.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Congress wants answers on Pentagon\u2019s use of military lawyers in civilian jobs<\/a><\/p>\n

She questioned if a university would lose federal research funding if it allowed a peaceful protest against the war in Iran. Duncan didn\u2019t directly answer the question but said \u201cthis administration is committed to gold standard science.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Duncan currently serves as a senior official at OMB.<\/p>\n

Ranking member Gary Peters, D-Mich., said during the hearing that OMB is not cooperating with at least 14 audits from the Government Accountability Office, an independent and nonpartisan watchdog agency in the legislative branch. Likewise, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said that \u201cOMB has been very slow to respond to some of [GAO\u2019s] investigations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In response, Duncan said that he would review the audits in question.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAt one point, we had 50 open inquiries from GAO mid-last year,\u201d he said. \u201cWe try to respond to GAO inquiries in a responsible time, while still maintaining our ability to carry out our duties in support of the administration.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

OMB Director Russell Vought has previously characterized GAO as \u201ctypically wrong and very partisan.\u201d On several occasions, the agency has determined that the administration violated rules around impoundments, which is when the executive branch delays or withholds congressional approved spending.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition, Peters criticized the hearing\u2019s \u201covercrowded lineup\u201d with 11 nominees testifying \u2014 five in the first half and the other six in the second half. The ranking member also said that several of the nominees haven\u2019t completed Office of Government Ethics financial disclosures or FBI background checks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt certainly looks like this committee’s Republican majority is simply rubber stamping the president,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., responded that the committee would not vote on a nominee until all ethics reports and background investigations are complete.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Charles Baldis \u2013 the nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, which protects federal whistleblowers from retaliation \u2013 was not asked a specific question throughout the nearly 90-minute hearing.<\/p>\n

Read more The federal government has a major blind spot in how it evaluates programs<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democratic senators pointed to disparities between what states are approved to receive disaster funding as well as a proposal to require that political appointees approve grant awards to ensure they advance the president\u2019s priorities. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oversight"],"yoast_head":"\nFEMA, OMB noms grilled on alleged political sway in government assistance - Market Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/marketrelocationreport.com\/?p=285\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FEMA, OMB noms grilled on alleged political sway in government assistance - 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