WASHINGTON — The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency told lawmakers Tuesday that she encouraged the agency’s inspector general to look into whether an employee was acting alone when ordering workers helping hurricane victims not to go to homes whose yards displayed signs supporting President-elect Donald Trump.

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said a critical function of the agency must go go door to door and meet survivors to inform them of available federal resources. The employee, she said, wrote to about 11 staff members under her supervision to “avoid homes advertising Trump.”

Criswell said his senior management team provided him with evidence and recommended the employee be fired. She All right.

“I do not believe this employee’s actions are indicative of widespread cultural problems within FEMA,” Criswell said. She nevertheless said she would support an independent investigation into the matter.

“The IG has not yet said they want to investigate this matter, but I strongly encourage them to look into this matter and see if this is a widespread problem or if it is just “an isolated incident,” Criswell said.

Criswell appeared before a House subcommittee investigating the federal government’s response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton. She did so a day after President Joe Biden requested almost 100 billion dollars in emergency disaster assistance, about $40 billion of which is for FEMA programs.

It was clear that as lawmakers conducted an oversight hearing on FEMA’s overall response to the devastating storms, they were particularly focused on reports that the agency was avoiding helping some Americans because of their political beliefs.

Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., acknowledged that although the employee was quickly fired, it was clear from an interview with that worker that she believed she was carrying out the agency’s instructions.

“It appears that this particular worker believes she is being treated as a scapegoat, and if that is the case, more people at FEMA need to be held accountable,” said Perry, who chairs the panel that held Tuesday’s hearing.

Criswell said she was committed to ensuring “nothing like this happens again.” In the meantime, another team was sent to the field to contact all the houses that had been ignored on the employee’s orders.

Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., whose district was devastated by Helene, said the agency’s response was bound to be a bit clumsy because the mountains are not a traditional place for such flooding. He nevertheless cited numerous breakdowns. He said the storm was virtually over by September 27 and as a result, about a million people were without power and 25 water systems were destroyed. But he said it took three days before FEMA got any real visibility.

“It is simply not acceptable that it takes three days before FEMA visibility is achieved,” Edwards said. “There were people in their homes not only without power, but they couldn’t flush the toilet, they had no drinking water. We were cut off.” from the rest of the world. »

Criswell said FEMA was on the ground before the hurricanes hit and was proud of the work put in by some 22,000 workers in six states. She said workers persevered despite challenges presented by storms and misinformation on social media.

“We help all survivors, all people, get all the assistance they are entitled to under the law, and disinformation it makes this job much more difficult,” she said.