Rep. George Latimer
Westchester Congressman George Latimer, NY-16, recently penned a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin objecting to the Trump adminstrations action to tie FEMA disaster funding to the upcoming 2026 elections.
Rep. Latimer writes, “Dear Secretary Mullin, As Congressman for New York’s 16th District, I’m writing to you to express my disappointment with your decision to tie the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) disaster funding to the Trump Administration’s efforts to encroach on the authority of states and Congress to manage elections.
“I wish to persuade you that the cruelty of tying future disaster relief to President Trump’s singular obsession with having lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden is harmful to your reputation as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and to the President; but more importantly harmful to our mutual constituents – the nation’s disaster victims – Americans who have no other recourse than assistance from the federal government after the occurrence of tremendous storms, fire or floods that have taken their homes and livelihoods.
“When Congress passed funding for FEMA in April 2026, my colleagues and I never sought to condition that funding on the state, region or political affiliation of those who would likely require relief. That funding was meant as much for disaster victims in Oklahoma as it was in Hawaii or West Virginia or any of the 50 states and the U.S. Territories. Now, with hurricane season approaching, and more frequent severe weather events as a result of man-made climate change, my constituents in New York may very well need to look to the U.S. government for assistance if a disaster occurs.
“The thought that your agency would refuse to help New Yorkers– who pay more than their share of federal taxes to support DHS, and for the most tenuous of political motivations – is utterly unconscionable. If there was a better example of the term “arbitrary and capricious”
within the operation of the federal government, you would be hard pressed to find one this month.
The American people deserve better. Throughout this entire voter ID drama, no one has ever demonstrated that there was election fraud since President Trump grabbed onto the issue. In fact, states both red and blue have repeatedly maintained that American elections have been conducted with integrity. To pick on citizens for this reason in their time of need devalues them and the Administration, and in the end we will all lose from this misguided policy. I respectfully ask that you reconsider,” writes Latimer.