Atlanta firm won $156M FEMA bid despite botched contracts

Hurricane Maria devastated much of Puerto Rico and left tens of thousands without power, water and means to obtain basic necessities. Two Georgia companies have been implicated in botched efforts by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide food to stranded residents. CAROLYN COLE / LOS ANGELES TIMES / TNS

Hurricane Maria devastated much of Puerto Rico and left tens of thousands without power, water and means to obtain basic necessities. Two Georgia companies have been implicated in botched efforts by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide food to stranded residents. CAROLYN COLE / LOS ANGELES TIMES / TNS

Atlanta entrepreneur Tiffany Brown had no experience delivering large-scale disaster aid. Her company Tribute Contracting, LLC, had a history of flubbing small federal contracts. Yet days after Hurricane Maria made landfall, the Federal Emergency Management Agency put her in charge of delivering more than 30 million emergency meals to Puerto Rico.

On Tuesday, Democrats on the U.S. House Oversight Committee singled out FEMA's contract with Tribute as a reason why tens of millions of emergency meals never made it to the island.

What happened, they said, is “incomprehensible.”

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