The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has confirmed what every conservative has long understood – the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is a bureaucratic disaster from which Americans need to be rescued.
More is coming to light about FEMA’s mismanagement under the Biden administration. The examples of incompetence and politicization are stacking up. First, it came to light that Biden’s FEMA had instructed relief workers in Florida to avoid homes with “Trump” signs in the devastating aftermath of the hurricanes. Then came FEMA’s mismanagement in North Carolina after the traumatic flooding. And how quickly did the Biden administration spring into action in Los Angeles after the fires? Not very. And just days ago, thanks to Elon Musk and DOGE, FEMA was outed for paying $59 million to house illegal migrants in New York luxury hotels as taxpaying citizens suffer and remain homeless after multiple disasters.
After hearing about the ACLJ’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to FEMA following the “no aid for Trump supporters” fiasco, two Oklahomans sought our help. Rachel Magee’s home, located in Love County, Oklahoma, was directly hit by an EF4 tornado in April 2024. The Hon. Jon Echols, Former Majority Floor Leader (OK), referred her to us, expressing outrage over the prolonged suffering of Oklahomans. He was frustrated that available funds were either being slow-walked to an absurd degree or redirected away from Americans facing real natural disasters.
Though we’re still negotiating FEMA’s response to our FOIA request, the ACLJ recently sent a new FOIA request to FEMA and DHS. This time, we’re demanding records exposing why it is taking FEMA so long to deliver aid, whether in the form of temporary housing or financial assistance, to the areas of Marietta and Love County, Oklahoma.
As we laid out in our request:
"The tornado that “hit the Marietta, OK area was rated EF-4” and “killed 1 person.” It was “the first violent tornado to occur in the NWS Norman forecast area since the May 9, 2016 ‘Katie’ EF-4 tornado.”
"According to news reports, “[t]he Love County Sheriff’s Office said clean up efforts are expected to be lengthy. The most significant damage was to the city’s Homeland grocery store, Dollar General, hospital, nursing home and Dollar Tree Distribution Center.” This grocery store was the city’s major and only grocery store and its destruction left residents without ready access to food."
Such massive storm damage merits a swift and focused emergency response. FEMA has apparently “approved” $20 million in various types of assistance. Yet Oklahomans are reporting that FEMA has abandoned the residents of Love County and that now – nine months later – little if any aid has been delivered, regardless of the number of applications approved.
Oklahoma is a red state, and Love County is a red county. Did FEMA deprioritize financial assistance for these Americans because of that?
Given FEMA’s recent record of denying federal disaster aid to Americans based on political viewpoints, and since most of Oklahoma is conservative (Love County in particular), our clients are concerned FEMA is engaging in similar biased conduct here. If records produced in response to this FOIA indicate otherwise, Oklahomans need to know that as well. They need and deserve answers.
In addition to the concern over political bias, our client Ms. Magee is worried that her region is too sparsely populated to matter to national leaders and policymakers. Our response: Not if the ACLJ has anything to do with it.
As our client Rep. Echols put it:
"Whether FEMA’s delay in assisting Oklahomans is maliciously partisan, or whether it is because of general incompetence, it must end. Neither is a good answer. And if it is some of both, that’s not good, either. FEMA needs sunlight. I’m thrilled to stand with my friends at the ACLJ again in an effort to bring that sunlight to the Great State of Oklahoma. Here, our work will help expose bureaucratic nonsense institutionally, in Washington, DC, but also, it will help Oklahomans. We need a voice in the beltway and the ACLJ is helping us have one."
We commend Ms. Magee for reaching out to us so we can shine a spotlight on this issue and get answers. And once again, the DOGE strategy of lightning-quick strikes that open the books of our radical Left bureaucracy, like FEMA, has been effective. The Left is in a tailspin. The ACLJ will support DOGE’s mission in any way possible, working in tandem, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Why? Because Americans like Ms. Magee in Oklahoma—as well as those in Florida, North Carolina, and California—deserve better.
Join us in holding FEMA accountable by adding your name to our petition: Defend DOGE Gutting the Far-Left Bureaucratic State.