DOGE Staffer Is Trying to Reroute FEMA Funds

2025-02-13 09:16:00
www.dropsitenews.com

Fire-affected residents meet with FEMA officials on January 14, 2025 in Pasadena, California. Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images.

DOGE has gained access to FEMA’s core financial management system, according to sources within FEMA, and “has been embedded for days now.” On February 10, a representative of DOGE, Kyle Schutt, gained access to FEMA’s proprietary software that runs FEMA Grant Outcomes (FEMA GO), according to FEMA staff and communications reviewed by Drop Site. FEMA GO is the system that “controls disaster grants as well as non-disaster grants throughout the country and territories.” Schutt also asked for the source code to FEMA’s Integrated Financial Management and Information System (IFMIS), which all approved FEMA grant payments go through.

Though unconfirmed, sleuths on X found some evidence that Kyle Schutt is the programmer behind the DOGE application website for prospective employees. Sources within FEMA identified Kyle Schutt as the same person pictured in this GitHub profile, which is now a broken link.

In a meeting, Schutt asked employees about making deobligations in the FEMA system. Once funds are appropriated to a federal agency by Congress, deobligating them would effectively terminate them. The only way to get the money back, once deobligated, would be to go through the Treasury, sources within FEMA told Drop Site.

Now that the Trump administration and DOGE have been blocked by the courts from accessing the Treasury payment system, deobligating funds would be a new workaround—rendering appropriated funds unusable from within federal agencies.

At least four FEMA employees have been fired with letters that cite Article II of the Constitution, “executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America,” and “this termination is an exercise of that power.” A source within FEMA told Drop Site: “the four people fired were just following instructions as required by Congress.” One of the fired employees had even “achieved excellence” in a recent performance review.

FEMA staff asked their bosses how employees were notified they were fired. “I don’t know,” an administrator replied. This led FEMA workers to wonder: if administrators are not responsible for the firings, who is? When asked, union representatives told FEMA employees they “didn’t think it was appropriate to mention” who fired the employees and how.

DOGE currently has FEMA employees tasked with combing through grants for DEI-related keywords for all grants dating back to 2021. DOGE’s list of “problematic” keywords include: Disadvantaged, Marginalized, Underserved, Environmental Justice, Climate, Equity, Equitable, Inclusion, Diversity, and Culture.

One source within FEMA confirmed to Drop Site that the funds being reviewed were appropriated by Congress. FEMA does not have discretion over how funds are used. Their job is to guarantee recipients—the most vulnerable populations in America—meet the requirements outlined by Congress.

As a consequence of DOGE gaining access to IFMIS, it now has access to personally identifiable information on migrants and disaster relief grant applicants. DOGE has access to Alien Numbers—called A-numbers within FEMA—for any migrants in the Shelter and Services Program (SSP). A-numbers help the agency track services allocated to migrants. A-numbers are like the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) version of a social security number. They can be used to trace any funds allocated by FEMA to migrants, pull personally identifiable information, and access final destination information in the CBP system.

The Disaster Relief Fund portion of FEMA has migrated their financial management to IFMIS as well, meaning DOGE has the names, addresses, and social security numbers for anyone who has applied for disaster relief, according to sources within FEMA.

DOGE claims to be auditing FEMA. But sources within FEMA report that the DOGE employees are primarily “computer science guys” and do not understand the basics of financial management. In one instance, a coder brought in by DOGE confronted a FEMA staffer about mismanagement of funds. The FEMA staffer clarified that no funds were allocated during the time period in question and that the DOGE representative simply misunderstood the data.

FEMA official Stacey Street on Monday told employees to pause grants on Monday in apparent opposition to a federal judge. DOGE is also working with a FEMA IT Specialist and a grant director, according to Drop Site’s reporting. “Everyone is complying. Everyone is afraid to lose their jobs,” sources within FEMA told Drop Site. They describe the situation as FEMA employees following a “chain of command and that leads to DOGE even though they’re not part of it.”

ICYMI: Drop Site’s Ryan Grim reported earlier today that Tesla is forecast to win a $400 million State Department contract after Trump’s election. Read the story here.