Christie shows support for developmentally disabled ashbritt contract
AshBritt, located in Deerfield Beach, Florida, is a company specializing in disaster relief operations.
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Rep chip pickering explains how ashbritt rips off taxpayers by shuffling papers
Overview
AshBritt Environmental is a Florida-based, national rapid-response disaster recovery and special environmental services contractor. AshBritt was founded in 1992, and has managed and executed around 100 disaster projects and around 28 special environmental projects. AshBritt has been involved in the debris recovery efforts of 30 federally declared major disasters in eleven states, beginning with Hurricane Andrew. Each of these recoveries was conducted under the authority and oversight of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
AshBritt is organized in four divisions: disaster recovery services, solid waste services, engineering services, and special environmental services, who can deal with the damage from hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, wildfires, ice storms, and terrorist activities. It provides non-hazardous waste collection throughout the United States. Among AshBritt’s past jobs are the cleanup and recovery from hurricanes and tornadoes.
Hurricane Katrina
The Army Corps of Engineers awarded AshBritt a contract worth $850 million to remove Hurricane Katrina debris in Mississippi, with an option to increase the dollar amount to one billion dollars. AshBritt had already been activated under a preexisting contingency contract for $150 million.
Following Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, as the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Advanced Contracting Initiative (ACI) contractor for U.S. Region 3, AshBritt was the Initial Response contractor for both Louisiana and Mississippi. AshBritt was ultimately tasked by the USACE as the prime contractor for the entire debris mission in the State of Mississippi. Owing to the severity of the damage, this mission proved to be the largest debris cleanup and recovery by a single company in U.S. history.
In Mississippi, AshBritt conducted debris removal, hazardous tree mitigation and demolition services in 17 jurisdictions, covering over 8,400 square miles (22,000 km2) and over 175 miles (280 km) inland. AshBritt collected, hauled and processed 21 million cubic yards of debris and wreckage. AshBritt staffed, managed and operated 49 debris management sites. AshBritt hauled over 700,000 loads of debris, using 12,400 certified operational vehicles.
Controversies
AshBritt has been criticized by local media and members of Congress for its cleanup work during Hurricane Katrina, after accusations that the company was inflating costs of debris removal.
In 2012, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie came under scrutiny after his administration awarded AshBritt a no-bid contract to clean up the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. A federal investigation found that Christie did not break any laws, but public outrage centred around the cost of the contract and AshBritt's significant political donations to organisations such as the Republican Governors Association.
In 2016, the Republican Party aired attack ads against AshBritt's record after CEO Randall "Randy" Perkins ran as the Democratic Party candidate for the Treasure Coast-Palm Beach congressional seat in Florida, USA.