Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Personal, Banking Data From Millions Of Survivors Of U.S. Environmental Disasters Accidentally Shared By FEMA
The Washington Post: FEMA ‘Major Privacy Incident’ Reveals Data From 2.5 Million Disaster Survivors
The Federal Emergency Management Agency shared personal addresses and banking information of more than 2 million U.S. disaster survivors in what the agency acknowledged Friday was a “major privacy incident.” The data mishap, discovered recently and the subject of a report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, occurred when the agency shared sensitive, personally identifiable information of disaster survivors who used FEMA’S Transitional Sheltering Assistance program, according to officials at FEMA. Those affected included the victims of California wildfires in 2017 and Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, the report said. (Achenbach, Wan, and Romm, 3/22)
In other administration news —
ProPublica: HUD’s Inspection System Gets A Poor Grade In Congressional Watchdog’s Report
The federal government’s system of inspecting taxpayer-subsidized housing is fundamentally flawed, and leaders at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development haven’t taken adequate steps to fix it, according to a congressional watchdog report released Thursday. The findings of the Government Accountability Office mirror those of an investigation by The Southern Illinoisan and ProPublica last year, which documented numerous cases in which substandard housing complexes received passing — and in some cases, glowing — scores from HUD. The news organizations built an online tool to allow users to look up the scores of taxpayer subsidized housing developments near them. (Parker, 3/23)
