Hurricane Milton’s rampage isn’t swaying Home Republican leaders who oppose returning to Washington to approve billions of {dollars} for catastrophe help.
President Joe Biden on Thursday stated lawmakers ought to return to Capitol Hill “immediately” from their preelection recess, echoing pleas from each Republican and Democratic lawmakers from the troubled states.
However regardless of questions concerning the solvency of the Federal Emergency Administration Company’s catastrophe fund, Home Speaker Mike Johnson and high appropriators insist the company can handle simply positive — for now — with the $20.3 billion that Congress freed up for it late final month. That cash is for the fiscal 12 months that ends subsequent Sept. 30.
“To be clear: Congress will act again upon its return in November to address funding needs and ensure those impacted receive the necessary resources,” Athina Lawson, a spokesperson for Johnson, stated in a press release to POLITICO’s E&E Information on Thursday.
“In the meantime, the Administration needs to focus on getting the existing and sufficient disaster relief out to the millions of Americans in dire need and work to assess the extent and nature of the damage,” Lawson stated. “Until the Administration does the work to provide an assessment, any action by Congress will be premature.”
The administration itself has been sending blended messages. Requested Wednesday on CNN if Congress must reconvene early to handle catastrophe help, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, stated that “FEMA has what they need right now.”
Biden has largely backed statements from FEMA officers saying the company has the assets wanted to help restoration efforts after Helene and Milton.
Even in a letter he wrote to congressional leaders on Friday, sounding the alarm concerning the looming catastrophe help cliff and urging lawmakers to step in, Biden’s request was for motion “after the Congress comes back into session on November 12th.”
Biden sounded a unique theme Thursday, saying that “I think the Congress should be coming back and moving on emergency needs immediately, and they’re gonna have to come back after the election as well.” He stated lawmakers ought to not less than present more cash now for the Small Enterprise Administration’s catastrophe loans program, which can be near exhaustion after a number of calamities.
Democratic leaders within the Home and Senate have stayed comparatively quiet on whether or not Congress ought to reconvene earlier than the post-election lame-duck session.
Two Senate Democratic management aides have stated they don’t count on Congress to reconvene except there are pressing catastrophe wants earlier than the election.
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell advised reporters Wednesday that the company is ready to “support all of the needs of everyone that was impacted by Helene and Milton.”
‘Burning the remaining dollars’
Milton made landfall in Florida late Wednesday evening as a Class 3 storm. With Floridians nonetheless reeling from Helene’s hit final month, forecasts of Milton’s destruction drew bipartisan concern that the storm would wallop federal catastrophe reduction accounts.
Even earlier than Congress allowed FEMA to faucet $20.3 billion with final month’s funding stopgap, the company had a backlog of $9 billion that it needed to withhold from older rebuilding tasks.
Criswell stated Wednesday that FEMA has “gone through about $9 billion already” and famous that “there’s just over $11 billion in the Disaster Relief Fund.”
“I’m going to have to evaluate how quickly we’re burning the remaining dollars,” she stated.
Biden spoke with Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday morning and stated the administration would supply any help the state wants for a fast response and restoration.
DeSantis advised Biden that state officers are assessing harm and thanked him for the federal help earlier than and after landfall, in accordance with a White Home pool report.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), DeSantis’ former emergency administration director, indicated on Fox Enterprise on Thursday that he was involved about FEMA’s catastrophe steadiness regardless of assurances from congressional leaders and the Biden administration.
“They have the funds to respond,” he stated. “If there’s another hurricane, they probably won’t have the funds to respond, and they probably also don’t have the funds to deal with all of the reimbursement that cities and counties put out to respond and clean up during these disasters.”
Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.), chair of the Home State-Overseas Operations Appropriations Subcommittee, stated he feels Congress can deal with catastrophe funding in a fiscal 2025 funding package deal or one other funding extension later this 12 months.
“The president of the United States says we have enough money. … If that changes, we’ll have to go back, but right now, from what I’ve seen, if the money’s there, we don’t have to come back before we have to finish the appropriations bills,” Díaz-Balart stated.
He added, “Obviously if the money won’t be there all of a sudden, I’ll be the first to demand that we come back.”
‘We can pass this immediately’
Nonetheless, the requires extra pressing motion are piling up.
Moskowitz has launched two payments to supply a complete of $20 billion in supplemental catastrophe funding for FEMA, the Division of Housing and City Growth’s catastrophe block grant program, and the Small Enterprise Administration’s catastrophe loans program.
SBA Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman stated in a press release over the weekend that her company was prone to run out of catastrophe help mortgage funding “before the end of October.”
The company stated Wednesday that it had simply $100 million remaining for brand new loans as purposes for that cash proceed to pile up. Hours later, a gaggle of 63 Home Democrats despatched a letter to Johnson calling on him to reconvene Congress this month to approve new help, together with for SBA loans.
Thursday morning, as Floridians had been awakening to catastrophic harm, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), the one Republican to co-sponsor Moskowitz’s supplemental funding invoice for FEMA, stated she spoke with Biden concerning the funding request.
“Just spoke with @POTUS Biden — he’s personally ensuring FEMA doesn’t cause delays with debris removal and supports the $15B in FEMA funds specifically for hurricane victims,” she posted Thursday on the social media platform X.
“If Congress holds a special session, we can pass this immediately,” she added. “@SpeakerJohnson, let’s make it happen!”
Emma Dumain and Thomas Frank contributed to this report.
