A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report from the Office of the Inspector General has revealed more than $7 billion remaining in emergency relief funding, the New York Post reported Monday.
These findings come despite DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s remarks last week that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) — an agency of DHS —might not have sufficient funding to last through the 2024 hurricane season.
“We are expecting another hurricane hitting,” Mayorkas said Oct. 2, 2024, just days before Hurricane Milton formed in the Gulf of Mexico. “We do not have the funds. FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season and what is imminent.”
But the inspector general’s report, titled FEMA’s Inadequate Oversight Led to Delays in Closing Out Declared Disasters, has found that approximately “$7 billion in unliquidated funds that could potentially be returned to the Disaster Relief Fund.” It went on to state, “Without improved oversight and stronger policies, billions of dollars of unliquidated funds that could otherwise be returned to the Disaster Relief Fund will remain obligated to state, territorial, tribal, or local governments and unavailable for use in providing relief in connection with current disasters.”