Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance recently criticized the Biden-Harris administration's handling of the response to Hurricane Helene in an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal. Vance alleged that a bureaucratic bottleneck was causing delays in deploying active-duty military personnel to the western mountains of North Carolina.
Vance pointed out that as of Friday, Oct. 4, less than half of the 1,000 troops assigned to operations in Western North Carolina were deployed. He credited statements from North Carolina Sens. Ted Budd and Thom Tillis for prompting the Pentagon to authorize an additional 500 troops on Sunday.
President Joe Biden responded to the situation by stating that his administration is sparing no resource to support affected families and announced the deployment of an additional 500 active-duty troops to assist in the recovery efforts.
Vance criticized the response to Hurricane Helene, claiming that it has been overshadowed by what he perceives as misplaced political priorities of the Biden-Harris administration. He alleged that FEMA has allocated funds to nongovernmental organizations focused on facilitating mass migration into the U.S., diverting attention from assisting U.S. citizens affected by the disaster.
Former President Donald Trump has also weighed in on the situation, accusing the Biden administration of using FEMA funds to house undocumented immigrants. However, it is important to note that the $650 million allocated by Congress in the 2024 fiscal year for a program to assist state and local governments in housing migrants is separate from FEMA's disaster relief funds.
