November 19, 2024
Remember those two hurricanes and the millions of Americans who were devastated by them? Homes and schools destroyed? Towns washed away?
$100 BILLION!
That’s about how much money President Biden wants congress to give to about a dozen federal agencies to respond to and help the millions of Americans suffering from the fall out after those hurricanes, natural disasters and other emergencies.
Biden sent this letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson last night outlining exactly what multiple different agencies need. You see money to help disaster victims doesn’t just appear out of nowhere. Congress budgets money every year for each of those disaster response agencies. But when those natural disasters become too big and too costly – that money runs low. And guess what? After back to back devastating hurricanes this year, money has run low. Because disasters response isn’t solved immediately. It takes years of funding for people and cities to recover. The president can’t just wave a magic wand and resupply that money. No. The constitution says Congress is in charge of the purse and it’s up to lawmakers to decide how much or how little the victims of these storms will get. The president’s job is to assess how much is needed and ask for the funds through what’s called a supplemental budget request. And that’s what Biden just did.
The bulk of the money President Biden requested – $40 billion– would go to FEMA – specifically its disaster relief fund. That’s the pot of money I told you about in these videos that is used to directly respond to victims of natural disasters. Biden says this money should be enough to address those issues and get the agency through fiscal year 2025. The next biggest budget request was for the Agriculture Department for $24 billion to help farmers who lost crops and livestock in recent hurricanes or because of drought or wildfires. There’s also a request for $8 billion for repair of highways, bridges and federally owned roads that were damaged by these natural disasters and $2 billion was requested for the Small Business Administration which also is responsible for distributing low interest loans to businesses and homeowners to get back on their feet after these disasters.
Now – if you remember when those hurricanes hit – congress was on recess. Speaker Johnson refused to call Congress back into session to address these funding issues for these victims and instead said congress would deal with it after the election. Well now it’s after the election and congress is back in session. So they have to deal with it now. But how they deal with it is the question. Just because Biden asked for that amount does not mean that’s what Congress is going to allocate. In fact – when Biden asked for help for FEMA last time – they just ignored his request. But it’s also worth noting this isn’t the only major funding issue lawmakers are dealing with. They are also trying to avoid a government shutdown on December 20th.
Letter from Biden to Speaker Johnson here.
