Unfortunately, I cannot say Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director Brock Long is under investigation for the agency's poor response to natural disasters, but he is under investigation for very familiar reasons.
The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) inspector general is investigating Long's use of government vehicles for long distance trips that also include his aides. And this is a weird one, because Long has reportedly been on the road for so many hours he's missing time at work.
Long’s routine absences from the office due to frequent six-hour drives between North Carolina and Washington also drew [DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s] attention, this person said. Nielsen had raised the issue of Long’s in-office schedule with him in recent months, this person added.
At a meeting in late August, Nielsen confronted Long about his travel, though people familiar with the meeting gave conflicting accounts about whether she took the step of asking him to step down over the issue.
One of the officials said Nielsen asked Long to consider resigning, though he declined to do so and remains in his role.
Driving back and forth between North Carolina and Washington every week and missing time at the office because of it is weird and it could even be more costly than simply flying.
According to Politico, Long's aides have also traveled with him back and forth to his home in North Carolina and taxpayers have been paying for their hotel rooms near Long's home.
Long has reportedly started driving himself, rather than use a government driver, but he's still using government vehicles and his aides are still traveling with him as far as we know.
Recent experience tells us there's probably more to this story and he's done more than simply drive across multiple states each week. And we don't know how many hours Long as missed at the office, but I feel like he would have to miss an awful lot of time for anyone in the Trump regime to care or even notice.
It seems unlikely to me that Nielson would urge him to resign if this is all there is to the story.
Of course, we should also consider the absurdity of urging him to resign over this rather than, you know, his response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.