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Lawmakers anticipate the Biden administration will send them a disaster aid request next week outlining needed relief following hurricanes Helene and Milton, according to the House’s top two appropriators.
Congressional leaders aim to then finalize and pass a bipartisan assistance package sometime after Thanksgiving that could total more than $100 billion, boosting aid to communities hit by the two hurricanes this fall, as well as a yearslong, nationwide backlog of recovery work for disasters like severe flooding, wildfires and landslides.
House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) and his Democratic counterpart, Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, both said they expect broad bipartisan support for clearing disaster aid in the coming weeks, even as the separate task of funding the government next month is complicated by the Hill's changing balance of power.
Once Congress receives a disaster aid request, it typically takes several weeks for lawmakers to write bill text and pass an emergency funding measure through both chambers. After Hurricane Sandy in 2012, it took exactly three weeks to clear the aid package for the president’s signature once the White House request arrived.
“We want to make sure the estimates are right,” Cole said, using Hurricane Sandy as an example of the “enormously complex” task of calculating recovery costs.
Top lawmakers and congressional aides have already been working behind the scenes this fall to size up funding needs since Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida more than seven weeks ago, including travel to affected communities. Beyond FEMA, dozens of other federal agencies are estimated to need tens of billions of dollars to assist in recovery efforts, including support for massive infrastructure projects like rebuilding water systems in North Carolina, where water remains undrinkable in cities like Asheville.
The goal is to try to clear a disaster package “as quickly as possible,” DeLauro told reporters Friday. “There's been so many natural disasters and fires,” she added. “People are suffering.”
Since FEMA still has several billion dollars in its disaster relief fund, the basic recovery work the agency supports is unlikely to be significantly delayed if Congress clears an assistance package in December. But the Small Business Administration has been out of money for a month to cover loans to homeowners and businesses in disaster-wrought communities.
Lawmakers from states struck by the hurricanes are trying to fast-track a bill that would refill the disaster loan program now, rather than wait weeks for lawmakers to turn the White House’s broader aid request into law. But Sen. Rand Paul blocked a request this week to quickly pass a bill to that end, as the Kentucky Republican insists the Senate cover the cost by clawing back other unrelated funding.
“I’m willing to let the bill pass," Paul said on the floor. "But take some of the fluff and boondoggle subsidies from the Green New Deal and put it into here."
This week, the Small Business Administration told appropriators that more than 10,000 applications for disaster loans are already on pause, and that number is growing by the day. People awaiting loans to make their homes livable or keep their restaurants from going bankrupt are now hearing by phone or email from the agency that the program is out of cash and awaiting action from Congress.
Passing disaster aid is when lawmakers “cut the crap and do our jobs,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said this week before Paul blocked his request to pass a bill to fund the disaster loan program.
“A lot of these people lost loved ones who owned businesses,” Tillis said. “Now they’re just trying to keep their business afloat while they’re going to funerals. And we tell them: ‘Well, we’ve just got to wait for Congress before we can send you a check?’ Because for the first time in this body, we’re going to demand a pay-for for disaster recovery?”
