Re: FEMA–Day Late And a Dollar Short

Once again, FEMA is a day late and a dollar short with their response to the waste, fraud and abuse that occurred post-Katrina.  Everyone agrees that we need to get emergency aid to people in times of need, but to have more than $1 billion of taxpayers dollars spent on vacations to Hawaii, trips to the casino and adult videos is unconscionable and unacceptable to me.  Unbelievably, some of the aid was sent to federal prisoners in states unaffected by the hurricane.  Yesterday’s hearing hopefully made it crystal clear to FEMA that a repeat performance like this will not stand, and that we fully expect the criminals who gamed the system last year and cheated American taxpayers will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.  Equally important is that FEMA must develop systems that will prevent fraud like this from taking place in the future.