Ugh. That we need to cover this here.
Alright, so ever since public law 107-296 which is the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). And this move has created a LOT of “well why are they doing that?” moments.
So let’s talk about the migrant thing. First let’s talk about the program that the migrant thing is found under. The migrant thing is the Shelter and Services Program (SSP) which has two programs under it. SSP-A (which is A = Allocated) which has specific allocations assigned to them. And SSP-C (which is C = Competitive) which local governments, Indian tribes, Puerto Rico, and DC all put in an application towards. There is one SSP-C grant on Aug. 28th of each year and there are two SSP-A in April and August of each year.
SSP-A is mostly migrant stuff which you can find the specific allocations here for the FY’24. You’ll note that this allocation is ~$300M, that’s because the other SSP-C is allocated ~$340M which comes to ~$650M (it’s like $649.3M, I am rounding here).
That funding and the establishment of the SSP altogether comes from Public Law 117-328 the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023. You can find it under Division F, Title II. It’s on page 272 of the PDF but your reader may indicate that it is on page 4730 as this comes from the much larger “Statues At Large” (which I will not get into here).
That $800,000,000 shall be transferred to ‘‘Federal Emergency Management Agency—Federal Assistance’’ to support sheltering and related activities provided by non-Federal entities, including facility improvements and construction, in support of relieving overcrowding in short-term holding facilities of U.S. Customs and Border Protection
So this creates it and public law 118-47 the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024, establishes $650M. That’s under Division C, Title II.
That $650,000,000 shall be transferred to ‘‘Federal Emergency Management Agency—Federal Assistance’’ to support sheltering and related activities provided by non-Federal entities, in support of relieving overcrowding in short-term holding facilities of U.S. Customs and Border Protection
So now we know about the SSP. The SSP is administered (the people who run the thing) by the group that handles the Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) which I won’t get into that program outside of the same people that write checks for the EFSP handle the SSP as well and the EFSP was established by the McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987, public law 100-77.
Alright, now hurricanes and disasters and what not. All of that comes originally from the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act of 1988 public law 100-707. This is the thing that takes what used to be a general fund and splits it out into a very specific fund known as the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF). If you go back to the Public Law 118-47 that I linked to under Division C, Title III you will see that the DRF is allocated $20.261B.
For necessary expenses in carrying out the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act … $20,261,000,000, to remain available until expended
Now you will note that these are TWO DIFFERENT FUNDS. And because of public law 114-4 FEMA has to publish a report of where the money is going for the DRF every 30 days. Which you can find those reports located here.
So that said. It is important the you all understand. EFSP/SSP is different than DRF. And the funds aren’t usually transferred from one to the other. They can be, but Congress has to approve such a move unless the money is a “recovery” which means money was spent but that money came back (maybe a booking error, lawsuit, etc…) There has been no such move from DRF to SSP indicated in the reports nor approved by Congress, so such a move HAS NOT HAPPENED legally, and likely just HAS NOT HAPPENED. People tend to not want to break the law.
This has been one of the dumbest roads that the political conversation has careened down. Especially given how much public information there is out there about this topic.
Excellent explanation! Thanks.
Thanks for linking to the reports. I pulled September’s to review and was shocked at the amount of disasters still funded for recovery/operations. Considering my own reaction, I don’t think people realize just how many simultaneous projects are still being managed and how long they’ve taken to use up funds. (Not the fault of FEMA; Louisiana apparently requested an extension to use $1.66B in 2022 as it couldn’t exhaust it by the Aug 2023 deadline.) A lot of the money is already committed or awarded and waiting to be spent. Handling so many projects at the same time explains the sudden drain you see from some months. All of this is categorized down to each region receiving funds per disaster response. Simple enough to track.
But as far as I’m concerned, they absolutely should be spending that sort of money on helping migrants in need
Every word uttered by a conservative is deception or manipulation. Every word.
Conservatives have been every culture’s compulsive liars throughout all of human history. This is just who they are. Never trust the word of a conservative.
The only thing dumber than a dumb conspiracy is a stupid dumb conspiracy. $1 billion is such a small amount of money to go to kajillions of immigrants trying to trans up our kids in prison or whatever the latest fear-mongering lie claims.
The lies are so fucking confusing if you spend even 15 seconds actually thinking about them. It’s so weird that they just keep making up all these nonsensical lies.
Yup, wasn’t 1 billion. It was “only” 300 million dollars.
For those who cant read:
This funding does not come at disaster victims’ expense. Neither of the programs for migrants uses money from FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund, which is primarily used after natural disasters. Congress funds the migrant and disaster relief programs separately.
It was FEMA funding that was allocated to migrants from the start. It’s not “stolen/moved” from hurricane relief funds like the GOPers claim.
SSP is a Title II, DRF is Title III. Those are different things. Money from Title III appropriations HAVE NOT been reallocated into Title II programs. The end.
