Don't be a Republican in a disaster area. You won't get help from FEMA. Exclusive: FEMA Workers Improperly Collected Data About Politics of Disaster Victims
This was dismissed as being "one employee." It wasn't one employee, though they only fired that one employee.
Then FEMA administrator testified to that effect.
A year later, the Privacy Office of the Department of Homeland Security is releasing a review of that episode, the broader issue of using disaster relief work to collect political intelligence on voters, and the potentially withholding of benefits from some with the wrong beliefs. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the new administration found more than just one “isolated incident,” describing violations of the Privacy Act of 1974, which with a few exceptions bars collection of information about First Amendment-protected speech, like political signage.
Part of it is the way the manuals at FEMA were written.
Click thru for details and some analysis.
