FEMA chief will keep job, boss says

WASHINGTON — The head of the federal disaster response agency used government vehicles without proper authorization but will not lose his job over it, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Friday.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator William “Brock” Long had been under investigation by the Homeland Security Department’s watchdog over possibly misusing government vehicles to travel to his home in Hickory, N.C. Word leaked of the investigation just as Hurricane Florence was poised to make landfall this month.

Nielsen said in a statement Friday that there had been a long-standing practice to transport FEMA administrators in government vehicles to ensure they could remain connected during a crisis. But despite this practice, use of government vehicles for home-to-work travel was not officially authorized, and that practice was eliminated in April.

Nielsen said the report by Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General also found Long used government vehicles for nonofficial reasons.

In a statement Friday, Long said he accepted full responsibility.

“The secretary and I are taking corrective action to prevent such mistakes from happening in the future,” he said. “I remain committed to the critical mission of FEMA — helping people before, during and after disasters.”

He has been head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency since June 2017, presiding over a particularly grueling hurricane season that included Irma, Harvey and Maria, plus wildfires in California.