North Carolina state representatives have passed legislation prohibiting those rendering emergency aid from discriminating against those they assist based on political affiliation or political speech. 

H.B. 251 also adds “a provision that no applicant for any State emergency assistance in the form of grants shall be required to provide any personal demographic information unless the information is necessary to award the grant or is otherwise required by law.”

“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,” Republican State Rep. Kelly Hastings, R-Gaston, said on the House floor Thursday, according to The Carolina Journal. “And 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 speech that we have.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) came under fire last year when an agency supervisor allegedly instructed workers to avoid reaching out to homeowners with Trump signs in their yards after Hurricane Milton, which struck the U.S. about two weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated areas across six states. Helene was the most deadly hurricane since Katrina.

Fired FEMA supervisor Marn’i Washington alleged to Fox News Channel this week that she is being scapegoated by the agency for its policy to avoid approaching Florida homes displaying signs for President-elect Trump.  (Fox News Channel)

In February, FEMA said 153,000 families were receiving FEMA assistance in North Carolina.

Despite the agency’s efforts last year, however, many North Carolinians still living in trailers throughout the winter after losing their home in the storm expressed frustration with the government’s response to the disaster that left 107 dead in the Tar Heel State alone. 

The North Carolina bill, which amends the North Carolina Emergency Management Act, will now move on to the Senate.