WASHINGTON — Congress could break its six-week recess and return to D.C. in the final days before an extremely close election to authorize emergency spending for Hurricane Helene recovery and response.
Lawmakers will not return to Washington, D.C. until after Election Day on November 5, but President Joe Biden stated Monday during his remarks on the storm that he might ask Congress to return sooner to process an emergency spending request.
Whether that happens is up to Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat.
How much pressure these two feel to shorten the pause will likely depend on when the White House budget office sends Congress the emergency request for additional spending, how quickly federal agencies expect to run out of money and how urgent the need appears.
The death toll topped 100 as of Monday afternoon in six states – Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee – and White House aides said hundreds more were missing. Two million people are without electricity and many others lack water and mobile communications.
Scott demands return
Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott released a statement calling on Schumer to bring the chamber back into session following the White House’s request for emergency funding.
“While I know from my experience with previous hurricanes that FEMA and SBA damage assessments take time, today I am calling on Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to immediately reconvene the U.S. Senate as soon as these assessments are completed so that we can pass the Clean Up Act “Other disaster relief legislation, such as my Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act, was necessary to ensure the full recovery of families in all affected communities,” Scott wrote.
This process of putting together a request for additional spending from the White House includes determining which federal departments and agencies have enough money to handle their share of disaster relief and which need additional funding. This can take weeks, especially after major disasters like Helene.
As of Monday, it appeared more likely that Congress would resume work on Capitol Hill as planned on Nov. 12 and then consider emergency spending.
Meanwhile, staff on the House and Senate budget committees and in leadership offices will likely begin negotiating the additional spending package once the Office of Management and Budget actually sends the request.
Lawmakers can then pass the bill sometime during the lame-duck session in November or December, perhaps attached to one or a package of overdue full-year state funding bills.
Florida Republican Rep. Kat Cammack said on C-SPAN On Monday, she said she was “extremely confident” that Congress would approve emergency funding for disaster relief once members returned to Washington, D.C
“I’m absolutely certain there will be an addition,” Cammack said. “I fear that this will turn into a political football. And frankly, there is no place for politics in such disasters and emergencies.”
The disaster relief fund
Thanks to a provision approved by Congress a few days ago and special reservations for emergencies, FEMA can spend as much as necessary on disaster recovery.
The emergency spending bill Congress agreed last week, which keeps the federal government running until Dec. 20, included a provision allowing FEMA to spend money from its disaster relief fund more quickly than would otherwise have been allowed.
FEMA’s disaster relief fund can work with so-called emergency funds, which the agency can employ as a safety net if the account runs out of money.
Immediate need for financing gives FEMA pause “Funding for long-term recovery and hazard mitigation projects that FEMA does not have in its system,” according to a congressional research service report.
“These INF restrictions do not affect individual assistance or public assistance programs that reimburse state and local governments for emergency response and protection efforts,” CRS said.
According to CRS, FEMA responded to immediate needs several times, including in August 2017 after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas, as well as in fiscal years 2003 through 2006 and fiscal year 2010.
Previous requests for funding went unheeded
The Biden administration sent Congress in October 2023, a supplemental spending request requesting additional funding for natural disaster response and recovery. A deeply divided Congress, where Republicans control the House of Representatives and Democrats have a narrow majority in the Senate, did not approve the request.
Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget sent another letter to Congress This June, she called on lawmakers to approve billions in additional funding for natural disasters.
Young wrote that she wanted to “repeat October’s request and provide revised estimates of an additional $4 billion for certain disaster needs, including funding to address the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, the devastating fires on Maui in the last summer, and tornado survivors in Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma and throughout the Midwest.”
“Especially as we enter what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration describes as an “exceptional” hurricane season, the Administration urges that Congress take immediate action on this request, including for the Federal Emergency Management’s Disaster Relief Fund (DRF). Agency (FEMA). “Ensure we meet the federal government’s responsibility to both rebuild from past disasters and respond to future events,” Young wrote at the time.
The additional spending request the Biden administration sends to Congress in the coming weeks will likely build on these previous requests.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a briefing on Monday that the Biden administration was “disappointed” that Congress had not yet approved the request for additional spending.
“We’re disappointed that this didn’t happen,” she said. “We will continue this conversation. As the President said, we are in constant contact with members of Congress and want to ensure they act quickly on this matter.”
