October 25, 2023
You know how every time I talk about government spending, you ask in the comments – when are they going to spend money on this country?
Well today – as promised — the President did just that. He asked Congress to approve about $56 billion dollars in supplemental funding for issues right here in the United States. Just so we’re clear…this money would be on top of the normal budget spending for government programs and departments.
So what’s included?
Here are just a few of the biggest things.
Well, the largest amount of money – $23.5 billion — would go to the general category of disaster response. The bulk of it would go to aid to places like Maui after those devastating wildfires, for hurricane recovery in Florida and the flooding in the east. Now – you have to understand the way the federal government distributes those relief funds — is through FEMA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Funding would also go to the USDA to support farmers and ranchers who suffer crop losses because of extreme weather. And Department of Transportation to repair roads after weather related disasters.
$16 billion would be used to keep child care facilities afloat. I told you in this video we went over what many call the child care cliff a few weeks ago. That’s because funding that has been keeping a large number of child care facilities in this country open and had been keeping costs down for working parents since the pandemic — ran out. So this money would keep those funds flowing so child care facilities could stay open and working parents could stay on the job.
6 billion would go to the FCC to extend the free and discounted high-speed internet connectivity program for tens of millions of low income households through December 2024.
More than $1.5 billion would go to the Deparmtent of Health and Human Services to provide treatment, harm reduction and recovery support for all states dealing with fentanyl.
And $220 million for the USDA and Department of the Interior to prevent cuts to federal wildland firefighter salaries.
Now – this $56 billion is on top of the $106 billion President Biden asked Congress for last week for foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and the southern border. I told you all about those details in this video. These two supplemental budget requests along with the regular funding of the government is now the responsibility of the Senate and the brand new Speaker – Mike Johnson who just said he wants to drastically cut government spending.
Read more from the White House here.
Read the request break down here.
