Washington Wednesday: GOP majority strain and FEMA scrutiny

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 20th of November.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Lindsay Mast.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Time now for Washington Wednesday.

Today, the Administrator of FEMA answers tough questions from Congress.

MAST: But first, the shrinking Republican majority.

Here’s Washington Bureau reporter Leo Briceno.

LEO BRICENO: Almost as soon as President elect Donald Trump started announcing cabinet picks, Republicans in the House of Representatives began realizing they could have a numbers problem on their hands.

JOHNSON: I have begged and pleaded with the new president—enough already. Because our numbers are small.

That’s House Speaker Mike Johnson addressing the situation after his party renominated him to lead the chamber.

JOHNSON: We are going to have the majority…but we will have some of these vacancies open as we begin the year. We will fill them as quickly as possible. But we’re excited for our colleagues to have these new career opportunities and new opportunities to serve the country.

With votes still being counted in House races last week, Johnson couldn’t count on winning the majority until Thursday. By that time, Trump had already named two House Republicans for his new administration, Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, and Representative Mike Waltz of Florida.

And then Trump nominated a third, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida. That has some members worried about the strength of their majority.

ROY: I don’t know what the math is looking like, but I don’t know how many more House members get plucked, but three is starting to get pretty thin.

Rep. Chip Roy of Texas sits on the powerful House Rules Committee.

He fears that the window of time between Trump’s picks leaving Congress and when their replacements come in will strain an already threadbare Republican majority. As of Tuesday, five House races remained undecided…and Republicans have won 218 seats. That’s the bare minimum required to control the chamber. With Rep. Gaetz’s immediate resignation, House Republicans are already one seat short if they don’t pick up any of the outstanding seats.

I asked Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina if he was worried Trump could nominate Republicans out of their majority.

NORMAN: They will never let it get to that point. They will stagger them if they have to.

If nominees leave the House one by one rather than all at once, Republicans would have flexibility to deal with their temporary absence.

I asked Roy about the possibility of spacing out when members leave the House.

ROY: That’s speaker Johnson’s purview. I know he’s had some conversations with the president. In all seriousness with three now—you’re going to have to figure something out on the timing… It’s getting thin.

Florida State law requires Governor DeSantis to set an election day and primaries for the election. DeSantis hasn’t set a date yet for the races to replace Representatives Gaetz and Waltz.

Then for Stefanik’s seat in New York, state law requires Governor Kathy Hochul to set an election within 10 days of Stefanik’s official resignation. And that election then has to occur between 70 and 80 days later. Party state chairs will choose their nominees to run for the seat.

In the meantime, Johnson is making sure his conference knows what’s at stake for passing legislation in the next few months and beyond.

JOHNSON: Every single vote will count. Because if someone gets ill or has a car accident or a late flight on their plane that it affects the votes on the floor.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leo Briceno in Washington, D.C.

Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Deanne Criswell testifies during a hearing on oversight of FEMA on Capitol Hill, Tuesday. Associated Press / Photo by Ben Curtis

BROWN: Another concern for lawmakers this week? Assessing the needs of FEMA…the Federal Emergency Management Agency…near the end of a hectic year…

NBC: Coming on the air early this morning to bring you the latest on Hurricane Milton…

NBC: High fire danger across the west…

ABC 7 CHICAGO: Debbie turning deadly in Florida, with at least four people killed.

NBC: In Hurricane Helene’s wake, devastation and destruction as far as the eye can see.

MAST: On Tuesday, the head of FEMA testified before two House committees. WORLD’s Carolina Lumetta has the story on what was said.

CRISWELL: Thank you again for the opportunity to testify today, and I look forward to your questions.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell faced tough questions from Republican lawmakers… concerned about what they called mismanagement and politicization of recent emergency responses.

Several lawmakers, including Florida Congressman Byron Donalds, asked Criswell about one particular situation.

DONALDS: My question for you surrounds the firing of Miss Washington.

The instance involved a supervisor in Florida. After Hurricane Milton, Marn’i Washington told her team of door-to-door canvassers to stay hydrated, stay in pairs…and avoid homes with Trump advertising. When news broke, Criswell fired Washington.

DONALDS: She gave multiple interviews in which she claimed that avoiding politically hostile homes is commonplace throughout FEMA. Is this a practice at FEMA?

CRISWELL: Congressman, there is nothing in any of our policies, training, or our information sent out to our field workers to avoid any home for whatever reason, especially not because of a political affiliation.

Criswell also told lawmakers that she has requested an independent Inspector General investigation into the agency’s responses to hurricanes in Florida and the Carolinas.

CRISWELL: I do not believe that this employee's actions are indicative of any widespread cultural problems at FEMA.

But since being fired, the FEMA employee Washington has said publicly that she is being scapegoated. Here she is on News Nation earlier this week.

WASHINGTON: I was simply following orders.

That led transportation subcommittee chairman Scott Perry of Pennsylvania to ask Criswell this question.

PERRY: Do you know how many supervisors does she have? How many people above her before she gets to you?

CRISWELL: She is a crew lead, which is the lowest level of supervision.

PERRY: So there's a lot of people above her, so to speak, in the chain of command.

CRISWELL: There are several people…

Other Republicans on the committee voiced similar concerns about how widespread the problem might be. Here’s New Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew.

VAN DREW: So The first question I'm going to ask you, that this came, this was part of the administration, is she a liar?

CRISWELL: Her allegations, I have not seen any evidence that this is beyond her specific direction, but we are conducting additional investigations to ensure that this is an isolated incident.

VAN DREW: So the truth is we--

CRISWELL: And that we will take disciplinary action if there was more than her direction.

VAN DREW: The truth is we don't know yet…

Van Drew later told WORLD that he doesn’t believe this was an isolated incident.

VAN DREW: Look, I mean it's good that they terminated the one person that was responsible, but it's obvious to me that there's a culture there that allows this to be okay.

Democrats on the committees largely praised FEMA for its response and asked what resources the agency needs. Here’s what Congresswoman Val Hoyle of Oregon told WORLD:

HOYLE: What I've seen is an agency that is underfunded with too many temporary employees because it used to be we didn't have disasters the entire year, and I do think that things could be more efficient, but fundamentally, the agency has to follow the laws that we pass with the budget that we give them. So I have never seen it politicized, and I represent a lot of rural areas that have disasters a lot.

But Republicans say it’s time to reform FEMA. One option would be to change how the agency is structured.

GRAVES: I think that FEMA needs to be an independent cabinet-level agency.

Louisiana Congressman Garret Graves says that because FEMA is housed within the Department of Homeland Security, its value is buried.

Van Drew also highlighted another issue in the hearings…the effectiveness of FEMA’s overall response. He believes administration resources are spread too thin between natural disaster response and broader illegal immigration response.

VAN DREW: First of all, I want to see them be more efficient. I want to see them waste less money in general. I want them not to worry so much about illegals, because frankly, illegals shouldn't be here to begin with. They've broken the law. They're not all bad people, but some of them are. So let's spend money in a more focused way…

When asked if he would support the White House’s request to approve supplemental funding that includes $40 billion dollars for FEMA, Graves told WORLD he’s still on the fence.

GRAVES: Look, we need a disaster supplemental. I think that FEMA still has some answers, some questions to answer. For example, there was an inspector general report that came out a few months ago that said they are sitting on $71 billion in unliquidated obligations. That’s a government term for money that they owe for payments.

The agency has said it is not allowed to use disbursed money from previous appropriations, only appropriations from the current fiscal year…and those have nearly run out.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has not yet said if a year-end stopgap bill would include FEMA’s additional funding request to cover the rest of this fiscal year.

Other Republican lawmakers WORLD spoke with said they wouldn’t oppose supplemental funding…but they want more answers on how FEMA currently operates before writing another check.

AUDIO: So with that, the subcommittee stands adjourned.

Today, Criswell heads over to the Senate to testify on the agency’s funding requests before the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Carolina Lumetta.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.