Former FEMA employee slams agency on equity focus after official tells workers to avoid homes with Trump signs

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Former FEMA employee says agency debacle was ‘completely preventable’ after official directed employees to avoid homes with Trump signs

Chelsea Nied, a former FEMA employee who worked with the agency for 12 years, reacted to reports that a FEMA official directed employees to avoid homes with Trump campaign paraphernalia.

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A former Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employee said the guidance to skip over houses with Trump signs and banners is part of a larger diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) issue with the agency, saying it was “completely avoidable.”

Chelsea Nied, a former FEMA employee who was deployed 66 times in 22 states on the front lines of natural disasters, told Fox News Digital that Marn’i Washington, who has since been fired as a FEMA supervisor, should have refused the direction after spotting the “glaring political line” over instructing relief workers to “avoid homes advertising Trump.”

“What was really striking about the list that Washington sent to relief workers was that you have a glaring political line after seeing common directions, like drink water, be hydrated, communicate,” she said. “And in my experience, particularly from being in external affairs, when you see something like that doesn’t look normal you need to escalate it.”

FEMA OFFICIAL SAID TO AVOID HOMES WITH TRUMP SIGNS: ‘TO SAY I WAS SURPRISED WOULD BE A LIE’

Photo of Hurricane Helene aftermath provided to Fox News Digital by the office of Congresswoman Kat Cammack. (Office of Congresswoman Kat Cammack)

Public backlash came after FEMA confirmed to Fox News Digital that an employee had instructed aid workers to deny relief to residents who had Trump campaign signs at their homes. The Daily Wire was the first to report it.

The outlet said approximately 20 homes in Lake Placid, Florida, were passed over and not given government assistance after Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene.

Deanne Criswell, FEMA’s administrator on employee misconduct, previously told Fox News Digital that Washington’s actions were “reprehensible,” and another FEMA spokesperson told Fox that Washington’s actions were an “isolated incident.”

Washington, though, told “Fox News @ Night” that FEMA was throwing her under the bus for avoiding Trump supporters, which she alleges is a policy that came from her superiors.

Nied said she’s been in Washington’s shoes before, saying that she should have escalated the direction to upper management and solved the conflict “in house.”

“The big problem with all of this is that this didn’t have to get spun out of control this far and this wide. It could have been resolved, shall we say, in house,” she said. “And I’ve done that before in FEMA where I’ve been given unethical orders like this, and I immediately escalated it.”

Deanne Criswell, administrator of FEMA, speaks during a news conference at the White House on Sept. 26, 2024. (Al Drago/Getty Images)

The debacle follows after FEMA named its top priority to “instill equity as a foundation of emergency management,” according to the government agency’s strategic plan.

Nied said their goal of equity toward Trump supporters in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton was “discriminatory,” adding that their top priority was “not applied” to supporters of the now-president-elect.

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“Every year, every FEMA employee has to take mandatory anti-discrimination and equity courses, so when you’re seeing something like this, and you’re discriminating,” she said, “how can FEMA tout that it’s their number one strategic plan objective is equity for everybody, and then it’s not applied?”

“Equity for everybody is everybody,” she said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

Nied leaned into her 12 years of disaster relief experience, saying her goal was to reach every single person impacted by the storm – despite their political beliefs.

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“I was on Hurricane Katrina, I was on Hurricane Sandy – I know how this works, and I’ve been a team leader just like this person [Washington] has,” she said. “In the field, I would canvass the entire part of it, meaning that I went to every door, every business. And in some cases, we’ve had to go back two or three times because some people might be gone, and you’d miss them at home.”

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida attends a campaign rally for former President Trump at the Aero Center in Wilmington, North Carolina, Sept. 21, 2024. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital that the FEMA workers not assisting homes with Trump signs in Lake Placid, Florida, was “unacceptable.”

“It’s unacceptable and on behalf of the federal government, I’d like my office to apologize, because this should never be acceptable, especially in regard to political discrimination and the fact that so many of you lost your homes during Hurricane Milton,” she said.

The representative said they are launching a full-scale investigation into the FEMA allegations after they heard that this was not an isolated incident.

“There needs to be a full overhaul in FEMA and these people need to be held responsible and if that means criminals as well,” she said. “We have no idea how many people have been impacted as of right now, but what I can tell you is based on what we saw, it’s impacted a lot of people.”

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Residents are rescued from a second-story apartment complex in Clearwater that was flooded from an overflowing creek due to Hurricane Milton on Oct. 10, 2024, in Florida. (Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images)

Luna, whose district includes Largo, Clearwater and Palm Harbor, said she saw firsthand how people were impacted by the devastating and deadly hurricanes this season. 

“We had 13 people die in my district, so when you hear about how these people are impacted, it’s very possible that there were health-related concerns about when you’re being denied FEMA help,” she said. “There’s definitely, I think, a liability here.”

The Florida representative said she hopes the investigation reveals names and full correspondence relating to this incident.

“More importantly, I want to know how this can be avoided in the future and that’s exactly why President Trump’s pick for this position is so important,” she said.

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Criswell is expected to attend a House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing at 10 a.m. on Nov. 19.

Fox News Digital has reached out to FEMA for comment.

Sarah Rumpf-Whitten is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. 

Story tips and ideas can be sent to sarah.rumpf@fox.com and on X: @s_rumpfwhitten.