Overview
- A DHS Privacy Office review concluded FEMA impermissibly collected and retained notes about disaster survivors’ political expression dating back to at least 2021, violating the Privacy Act of 1974.
- Investigators documented entries such as “Trump sign, no contact per leadership” and decisions not to leave FEMA materials where political flyers or flags were present.
- Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem referred the matter to the Department of Justice and the DHS inspector general and directed FEMA to tighten data controls, retrain staff, and increase oversight.
- The review cited policy gaps, including an undefined “hostile” standard and open-ended free-text fields, which left outreach decisions to subjective judgment.
- DHS said it found no evidence of a top-down directive from FEMA leadership to bypass homes based on politics, though prior testimony calling the issue “isolated” is contradicted by findings across multiple disasters, including roughly 20 homes initially missed after Hurricane Milton.