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Republicans Press Obama to Back FEMA Funding Bill as Storm Nears

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Photo Credit: Fox News Screenshot

Photo Credit: Fox News Screenshot

The budget showdown is about to collide with a major weather event.

The House voted Friday to fund the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as Republicans cast the bill as an emergency measure to help Americans threatened by the approaching tropical storm.

“This is about people’s lives, people’s businesses,” Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, said.

The bill was one of several House Republicans have pushed in recent days to fund chunks of the government amid the partial government shutdown.

They’ve been pressuring Democrats, with little success, to support these mini-spending measures while the budget impasse drags on. Republicans upped that pressure on Friday, saying disaster response is critical as Tropical Storm Karen tracks toward the Gulf Coast and is poised to hit this weekend.

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The Revolt Against FEMA: Sandy Victims Criticize FEMA Flood Maps, Slow Progress

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Photo Credit: AP

Some New Jersey hurricane victims are complaining that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is doing more harm than Superstorm Sandy did when it hit over four months ago and washed away their homes and businesses.

“FEMA has caused more damage to the shore than Sandy did,” said George Kasimos, a flood victim from Toms River, N.J.

He is the founder of the growing grassroots group, Stop FEMA Now. The group feels FEMA is responsible for suffering and uncertainty for many Sandy victims who cannot start to rebuild.

FEMA issued Advisory Base Flood Elevation Maps as a provision of the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012, which was signed by President Barack Obama last July. That act expands flood zones, doubles flood insurance premiums, and requires those in certain flood zones to elevate their homes.

Stop FEMA Now is calling on Congress to revise the Biggert-Waters Act and curb FEMA’s power. “We need answers,” Kasimos said.

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FEMA Teams Told to ‘Sightsee’ as Sandy Victims Suffered

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Hurry up and wait.

That’s what first responders were left to do after being deployed by FEMA to assist in the storm-ravaged areas in the initial days after superstorm Sandy, FoxNews.com has learned. A FEMA worker who spoke to FoxNews.com described a chaotic scene at New Jersey’s Fort Dix, where emergency workers arrived as the storm bore down on the Atlantic Coast. The worker said officials at the staging area were unprepared and told the incoming responders there was nothing for them to do for nearly four days.

“They told us to hurry, hurry, hurry,” the worker, who works at the agency’s headquarters in Washington and volunteered to deploy for the storm recovery effort. “We rushed to Fort Dix, only to find out that our liaison didn’t even know we were coming.”

“The regional coordinator even said to us, ‘I don’t know why you were rushed here because we don’t need you,’” said the worker, who spoke out of frustration with the lack of planning and coordination following the devastating storm.

‘I worked in Katrina and Katrina was run better than Sandy.’

Read more from this story HERE.