By Rep. MARTIN ZAMORA
District 63
Candidate for Congressional District 03
When Congress created the Hermits Peak–Calf Canyon Fire compensation fund, the mission was simple: help New Mexico families rebuild after one of the worst disasters in state history. Homes were destroyed, land was lost, and entire livelihoods vanished overnight. The fund was meant to be a promise that victims would not be abandoned by their government.
Today, that promise is in jeopardy, and the people responsible for oversight have failed the folks they were charged with helping.
Investigative reporting has revealed that two senior FEMA officials involved in administering the wildfire compensation program received six-figure payouts tied to their own property claims. (In response to those reports, FEMA placed both officials on administrative leave pending further review.) Whether those payments technically comply with the law is now beside the point. The appearance of self-dealing at the highest levels of a disaster fund is devastating to public trust. When officials overseeing relief appear to benefit personally while victims struggle through delays and denials, the credibility of the entire program collapses.
Many families are still fighting through paperwork, appeals, and uncertainty years after the fire. They have been told to wait patiently and trust the system. Learning that insiders have enriched themselves through that same system far faster than the victims it was designed to serve is an utter betrayal.
This is exactly the kind of moment that demands aggressive congressional oversight.
That responsibility falls squarely on Teresa Leger Fernández, whose district was the epicenter of the fire and whose constituents depend on the integrity of this compensation program.
Oversight is not optional. It is the job.
Yet as concerns mounted about FEMA’s administration of the fund, there was no sustained public pressure from Leger Fernández demanding transparency about internal claims, ethics safeguards, or potential conflicts of interest (indeed, one of the direct beneficiaries of these sketchy six-figure claims was a recent Leger Fernandez congressional staffer). Victims were left to fight a sprawling federal bureaucracy largely on their own while their representative in Washington failed to demand answers and accountability.
New Mexicans deserve better than representatives who shirk responsibility.
When billions of dollars are being distributed in a disaster zone, the public deserves relentless scrutiny, not quiet deference to federal agencies. The appearance of impropriety surrounding these payouts should have triggered immediate hearings, document requests, and public explanations. Instead, the program drifted into scandal without meaningful oversight.
This is bigger than one headline or one official. It is about whether disaster relief in America operates with integrity, and whether elected leaders are willing to ask uncomfortable questions in order to protect their constituents.
The solution is not complicated. There must be full disclosure of any internal claims involving FEMA leadership, an independent Inspector General investigation, and congressional hearings focused on strengthening ethics safeguards. These steps are not political attacks. They are basic protections for the victims the fund was created to serve.
Wildfire survivors should not have to wonder whether insiders received preferential treatment. They should not question whether the system was designed to enrich a few at the expense of the many survivors. And they should not have to beg their representative in Congress to demand transparency on their behalf.
Disaster relief is not a perk. It is not a privilege. It is a promise to families at their most vulnerable.
Teresa Leger Fernández owed those families aggressive oversight. Instead, they got silence. And now the integrity of the program—and the trust of the people it was meant to help—is hanging by a thread.
That promise deserves accountability. And it deserves leaders willing to fight for it.