company not FEMA direct. The linemen are on their company's payroll presumably. The company is not making their payroll? Or the linemen are very much getting paid and their company is simply owed money from their client, in this case FEMA? Their company, 8 weeks ago was deployed and to your point even that math may not be adding up. I can't imagine they were deployed 3 weeks in advance of a weather event, one week ahead I could see, maybe with logistical admin work as far out as 3 weeks in advance. The company presumably sent an invoice/billing to FEMA and haven't yet been paid? When did they send the bill / payment application? What are the terms of their contract? I won't pretend to know what the billing process is between the deployed company and FEMA but corporate / government invoicing and payment application processes certainly linger for a standard 30 days or so as a matter of routine business practices and logistics. Color me skeptical as well. Of course, I'm going off of two sentences from the OP but doesn't really meet the reality test.