Wall Street Journal By Michael C. Bender 9/14/2018
As Hurricane Florence was forming in the Atlantic, senior Trump administration officials considered replacing the head of Federal Emergency Management Agency amid allegations that he misused resources traveling to his home in North Carolina, according to people familiar with the matter.
FEMA Administrator Brock Long is the target of an internal investigation looking into frequent travel between the nation’s capital and his home in Hickory, N.C., according to people briefed on the probe. The investigation included surveilling Mr. Long as he was driven 400 miles each way on his commute, the people said.
Investigators have told administration officials that Mr. Long, while under surveillance, often left agency headquarters on Thursdays and traveled home with a caravan of federal workers, who stayed in nearby hotels for the long weekend, the people said. He has spent about 150 days in North Carolina since he took over the job last year, which included weekends and time-off, the people said.
Mr. Long declined, through a spokeswoman, to comment on Friday. He has previously denied any wrongdoing and he didn’t attend a pair of FEMA news conferences Friday afternoon about the storm.
The White House has begun discussing potential replacements for Mr. Long, a senior White House official said.
At a media briefing on Thursday, Mr. Long said he “would never intentionally run a program incorrectly†and pledged to cooperate with the investigation, and that he and the agency were “100% focused†on the approaching storm. “That’s exactly where our attention needs to be from the standpoint of the life safety mission,†he said.
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-considered-replacing-fema-chief-as-florence-was-gathering-steam-1536971587
