Hill says FEMA wasted tax dollars

U.S. Rep. French Hill recently gave a Golden Fleece Award to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, accusing it of wasting taxpayer dollars.

The Republican from Little Rock sent a letter to FEMA Administrator William B. “Brock” Long on Wednesday informing him of the news.

Hill cited news reports about FEMA’s recent sales and purchases of manufactured trailers. The agency reportedly sold undamaged, 18-month-old, $150,000 trailers for a fraction of their purchase price last year, just days before Hurricane Harvey struck Texas. The agency resumed selling them later in the year, at a time when displaced Texans could have used them.

Trailers that were less than 18 months old were also sold because they had minor damage, The Associated Press reported.

Meanwhile, FEMA was issuing contracts for new trailers.

“I believe that selling off trailers needed for disaster victims with only minor damage or 18 months of use is a waste of resources, depriving desperate individuals of potential homes,” Hill wrote.

The late U.S. Sen. William Proxmire, D-Wis., was the creator of the Golden Fleece Award, using it to highlight government spending that he considered wasteful.

After Hill’s election to Congress in 2014, he resurrected the award.