Cyrus Dugger

From Public Citizen: FEMA Continues to Ignore The Law As Hurricane Victims Suffer

From Public Citizen:

This morning, National Public Radio aired a story on the continuing struggle for justice being waged by the victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita (listen here) The story focuses on Public Citizen’s successful lawsuit against the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and FEMA’s continuing failure to obey the law and pay housing benefits to hurricane victims. The story highlights a tragic story of a man facing eviction because FEMA has failed to pay his housing benefits. We urge you to listen to the NPR piece.

The NPR story also explains that FEMA has decided to appeal the decision of U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, who last week held that the recipients of housing benefits had been cut off rental assistance in violation of the U.S. Constitution. Judge Leon called FEMA’s handling of its emergency housing assistance program “Kafkaesque” and ordered the agency to make changes in the program and to immediately restore housing benefits to hurricane victims. What the story did not explain is that FEMA has apparently decided to ignore Judge Leon’s decision, even though the agency has not yet obtained a stay of Judge Leon’s decision. Meanwhile, hurricane victims suffer.

Posted at 2:19 PM, Dec 08, 2006 in Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)