RALEIGH — A North Carolina House bill making it a felony to discriminate when deploying disaster aid or assistance based on political affiliation or speech passed the chamber April 1 and will be taken up by the Senate.
House Bill 251 was introduced in late February by Rep. Kelly Hastings (R-Gaston).
Under the bill, “No United States citizen, United States national, or qualified alien as defined in 8 U.S.C. § 1641 shall be denied or discriminated against by the State or its agencies and employees for disaster recovery assistance on the basis of political affiliation or political speech.”
“This came about after an incident that occurred following Helene, and word was getting out that FEMA was actually discriminating against people based on their political speech,” Hastings said during floor discussion on the bill. “So that’s when we decided we might want to send a clear message about discriminating against someone based on their political speech, being that political speech is, under our constitutional jurisprudence, maybe the highest protected.”
The bill passed the House on April 1 by a vote of 106-10.
The 10 who voted no were all Democrats: Reps. Amber Baker (Forsyth), Mary Belk (Mecklenburg), Terry Brown (Mecklenburg), Deb Butler (New Hanover), Maria Cervania (Wake), Pricey Harrison (Guilford), Monika Johnson-Hostler (Wake), Jordan Lopez (Mecklenburg), Marcia Morey (Durham) and Julie von Haefen (Wake).
Before the final vote, Harrison was the only member to vote no on the passage of an amendment rewriting a line further defining the parties in the bill, specifically the removal of “legal resident” and addition of “United States national, or qualified alien.”
The bill, as noted by Hastings, was prompted by incidents reported during FEMA’s response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton. The activity became known when now-former FEMA worker Marn’i Washington leaked a text from a supervisor telling her and her colleagues to avoid engaging victims whose homes had Donald Trump political signs in their yards.
House Rules Committee Chairman Rep. John Bell (R-Wayne), one of the bill’s primary sponsors, told North State Journal in March that there were incidents in North Carolina.
“And it’s been very well documented about assistance denied to people or people passed over because they had a Trump sign in the yard,” said Bell. “I mean, that was actually brought out on national news.”
Diane Criswell, who headed up FEMA during the alleged incidents, resigned Jan. 20 just ahead of Trump taking office. Before her resignation, Criswell was questioned by a Congressional committee during a Nov. 19 hearing.
In a letter dated the same day of Criswell’s hearing, North Carolina’s Republican U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd released a letter they issued to her demanding numerous data points about FEMA’s activities in states hit by Hurricanes Helene and Milton as well as “all relevant communications between Ms. Washington and her Survivor Assistance Team.”
“We demand answers, accountability, and transparency to hold your agency accountable to the American people and ensure that FEMA employees are providing support to all victims,” wrote Tillis and Budd.
The following day, on Nov. 20, Tillis appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee, urging them to expedite relief funds to the state. Tillis and Budd pressured former President Joe Biden again in January over expediting deployment of direct temporary housing for North Carolina citizens impacted by Hurricane Helene.
Some North Carolina Helene victims struggled to receive aid under former Gov. Roy Cooper, who had not appointed a disaster recovery coordinator to engage FEMA and other federal aid officials. Buried in the middle of a March 9 Washington Post article, the outlet noted that N.C. Emergency Management Director William Wray confirmed that no coordinator had been assigned, telling the outlet that “officials decided to take a different approach.”
