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By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA - A lawyer argues that the Federal Emergency Management Agency should give several Florida newspapers the addresses of hurricane aid recipients so that the media can determine if government money was properly disbursed.
Charles Tobin told a panel of the Eleventh U-S Circuit Court of Appeals today that the public interest in obtaining that information outweighs any potential privacy rights that the applicants have in keeping their addresses confidential.
But FEMA lawyer Mark Stern argued that applicants for hurricane assistance are assured privacy when they apply, and that right should be protected.
It could take several months for the appeals court to decide whether a lower court judge erred in denying the addresses to The News-Press of Fort Myers, the Pensacola News Journal, and Florida Today of Melbourne.
Why should it be confidential? This isn’t money being given to victims of crime. It wouldn’t be fraud in providing the info under court order since there was no intentional misrepresentation since if FEMA said they would protect the names, then it seems they are in fact doing that.
I think the information should be made available in order to determine the extent of any abuse allegations and actual fraud on the part of the recipients.
This is a complete violation of privacy. It is nothing short of misleading if people signed up for FEMA aid assuming that addresses would be confidential (as they should be) and now, years later it is reversed so bitter people can pout about money they “should have got”. Take some responsibility.
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Posted by Don Place, Tampa, FL on 11/07 at 11:55 PM
This is somthing a little different but I wanted to mention it. FEMA paid many big companies to do hurrican clean up. The big companies took the money and never paid the guys that actually did the work. I have struggled financially because of the money I put out to do the work and never got paid. I know many people this happened to. One guy ended up looseing his home others have filed bankrupcy becaouse they were never paid.