The impact of budget cuts and neglect has taken its toll on many agencies of our government, but especially on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Americans are starting to realize how poorly prepared we were to deal with a pervasive pandemic virus. FEMA and the CDC, along with other agencies of our government, have some “splaining” to do.
Within FEMA, the cumulative budget cuts to Grant Programs Directorate felt daily. The Trump Administration and Congress are in a long line of leaders that have financially neglected FEMA.
FEMA staff work with old Microsoft computers and outdated information to make critical grant decisions. FEMA and the rest of the GPD department find themselves housed in a decaying old building in L’Enfant Plaza that has abysmal security, to the point one could say they have no real security at all. That’s not smart when the Chinese have embraced a full-court press to infiltrate virtually all agencies of the American government.
These budget cuts have impacted the various grant programs administered by FEMA GPD (Example: Urban Areas Security Initiative, and the general Homeland Security Grant Programs, among others).
For example, localities such as Louisville KY and Chicago IL often used the monies provided by these grants for disease surveillance. In contrast, other preparedness grants like the Assistance to Firefighter grants help first responders like EMT’s.
At the same time, critical positions within FEMA and the rest of Homeland Security remain unfilled. Since President Trump has been in office for almost four years, he is responsible for a poorly run FEMA.
FEMA GPD ‘s Assistant Administrator served as an Acting Assistant Administrator for well over a year before finally being confirmed by the Senate in the summer of 2019.
Furthermore, despite the wholesale neglect of FEMA, the Trump Administration created a new grant program called the “Presidential Residence Protection Assistance Grant,” which was designed according to our sources to reimburse local police forces for the protection of properties owned by the Trump organization.
Interestingly enough, this particular grant program did not exist under either Obama, who extensively traveled the country on vacation, or under President Bush, whose family owns property in both Texas and Maine. It is unclear who in Congress authorized or vouched for this suspicious grant program.
The program has cost taxpayers and FEMA nearly $100 million since it’s inception, coming at the cost of grants used to supplement the national stockpile of emergency response materials.
The Trump-appointed Assistant Administrator (AA) Bridget Bean held up essential initiatives relating to election security, limiting the use of PRC made drones by first responders, and various other programs.
This ensured they were delayed and held up way past their deadline. GPD guidance was supposed to be approved by the AA by the middle of August was not accepted until several weeks later at the end of September.
AA Bean would often sit in her office, watch TV, or talk to friends/colleagues while neglecting the approval of critical tasks. Decisions she was responsible for making, would often land in the lap of Deputy Assistant Administrator Chris Logan (a career civil servant) who would approve critical projects for her.
FEMA GPD, according to our sources, would turn down grant requests from blue states like CA and IL more often than others. Example: fire departments in LA and San Francisco were declined more than others. Whether this was due to politically motivated interference, or procedural issues is unclear.
While at the same time, the FEMA GPD assistance to Firefighter Grant division often sent out Notice of Potential Debt Letters to fire departments in places like Iowa, Wisconsin, and elsewhere attempting to collect for meager sums of money owed (below $5). Actions like these cost taxpayers more money to collect than what is owed. AKA: STUPID POLICY
The GPD also turned down non-profit security grant requests. This particular grant program was created due to ongoing white nationalist violence and other acts of domestic terrorism against non-profit organizations like Jewish synagogues.
As an example, the FEMA GPD turned down a non-profit security grant reimbursement request for Congregation Chabad Lubavitch of Massachusetts in the late summer of 2019. The reasons for the denial are not precisely clear, especially considering the congregation provided documented proof of project delays due to the erratic Massachusetts weather the previous winter from the contractor along with projected deadlines.
There were conversations in the FEMA Office of Chief Counsel (OCC) detachment regarding the White House attempting to influence and stall a formation of the overall definition of “white nationalism” by FEMA/DHS.
The main contractor for GPD for administrative and project management functions was Savvee Consulting of Chantilly Virginia and Klett Consulting of Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Both contractors have 100% of their total revenue from the United States Federal Government, and both engage in many dubious business practices that would not be tolerated if committed by Federal employees.
Both companies also abuse the disabled veteran and small business designation of federal tax and contract law (both of these companies are classified as “small businesses” despite having well over 100 hundred employees and hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts.
This is where MilitaryCorruption.com got involved. The abuses of the disabled veteran and small business designation make us wonder how many other businesses that were legitimately a disabled veteran business or a REAL small business were denied money because hundreds of millions were being dolled out to friends and cronies.
Savvee Consulting engages in nepotism as the chief vice president is CEO’s brother, while the senior project manager is his son despite having few previous qualifications to hold such a post. We call it the Hunter Biden syndrome.
Savvee Consulting is also purported to have conflicts of interest. The founder and CEO of Savvee is a former career DoD civilian employee. Vice President Kevin Askin (a retired naval aviator and the CEO’s brother) holds a key leadership position in Savvee Consulting, while the firm oversees a US Navy NAVAIR contract. Family members also receive more privileges and protections than other employees. Again, the Hunter Biden syndrome is in effect.
Klett Consulting’s founder is a member of the Republican party-affiliated Capitol Hill Club in DC, he served on an economic advisory committee for a GOP Administration, and he donated tens of thousands of dollars to incumbent Federal politicians of both parties.
Mark Klett has purportedly given very generously to both Senator Mark Warner and former Congressman Scott Taylor, both of whom sat on committees dealing with federal contracts and national security issues. Furthermore, the VP of the firm is also his brother.
Both Savvee Consulting and Klett Consulting knew of the problems facing FEMA GPD like the abuse of grants and the “Presidential Residence Protection Assistance Grant.”
The corrosive nature of nepotism, cronyism, and fraternization in government contracting practices are costing American taxpayers billions of dollars. The corruption within the American government knows no bounds, and few people are ever held accountable.
Instead, people who desperately need to work like the salon owner in Dallas are thrown in jail and fined $7,000. Large organizations like FEMA, the VA, FBI, CIA, DIA, etc. etc. are filled with good people, but it only takes a few rotten apples at the top to literally destroy the integrity of the entire organization.
Because the rule-of-law is being swept aside for people at the top of the food chain, we are inching closer and closer to complete anarchy. If people are not going to be held accountable, the danger will continue to rise.
We at MilitaryCorruption.com do not give a damn about what political party you are with, if government bureaucrats or their minions feel they are above the law, they become enemies of the People.
When Nancy Pelosi flies her private jet to Washington to add an additional $300 million to the stimulus Bill so she could make sure her friends at the Kennedy Center got their bonuses, or if the Trump Administration is pulling strings to use tax dollars to protect properties owned by the Trump organization…. all of it is wrong. ALL OF IT MUST STOP.
The danger to our Republic is rising in a direct and proportional relationship to the rise in corruption in our government and military. We usually make a change by casting a vote, but our voting system is also suspect. And, when millions of Americans are misguided by a corrupt news media, the entire process is tainted.
MilitaryCorruption.com thanks the brave whistleblowers who risk their careers and their lives to provide us information.
And who can forget these people? The ethically challenged people that were given extraordinary power over taxpayer money…
