Biden administration requesting roughly $100 billion for disaster relief

By Betsy Klein, CNN

Washington (CNN) — The Biden administration is sending a roughly $100 billion request to Congress to help Americans impacted by a series of major and record-breaking natural disasters in 2023 and 2024, including Hurricanes Helene and Milton, calling on lawmakers to pass the needed relief with “bipartisan and bicameral support.”

It includes $40 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund, after the federal government rapidly spent a recent infusion of around $20 billion from Congress to respond to hurricane season after it ran out of money amid other tornadoes, wildfires and floods.

The whopping topline number is roughly five times the amount Congress initially gave FEMA in its yearly budget process. Congress granted FEMA’s major disasters fund $20.2 billion for the 2024 fiscal year, according to a Congressional Research Service report. But a constant stream of deadly and destructive storms, wildfires and drained the agency’s coffers again and again.

The request includes funding for a number of other key areas of assistance for those impacted by natural disasters, including $24 billion for the Department of Agriculture to help farmers that experienced crop or livestock losses, $12 billion for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s block grant disaster recovery funding for communities, $8 billion for the Department of Transportation for road and bridge repair, $4 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency for water system upgrades, and $2 billion for the Small Business Administration’s disaster loan program for businesses, homeowners, renters, and other nonprofit organizations.

Congressional leadership will now have to decide how to take up the request – either as a standalone bill or packaged with the end-of-year spending bill.

There are minimal weeks left on the legislative calendar and Republicans are set to take control of both chambers of Congress in the new year. But there is a recognition on both sides of the aisle that getting aid passed is a priority. A senior administration official called on lawmakers to pass the additional funding “as quickly as possible,” and a Republican aide told CNN, “We need to do it this year if possible.”

The request is aimed at providing much-needed relief for Americans “still picking up the pieces” from the major back-to-back Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which struck the southeastern United States in September and October, as well as recent “severe storms in Alaska, Connecticut, Louisiana, New Mexico, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Illinois,” White House Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young said in a memo to interested parties earlier Monday.

Under FEMA’s “immediate needs funding posture,” which prioritizes funding for life saving and life-sustaining activities, the agency’s administrator Deanne Criswell warned that “FEMA will not have enough funding to get through fiscal year 2025. Additional funding is needed to ensure that we can support communities and achieve our mission.”

The request comes as Criswell’s agency is under scrutiny after an employee was fired for advising their disaster relief team to avoid homes with signs supporting now-President-elect Donald Trump while canvassing in Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton. Pressed on the ongoing investigation, a senior administration official declined to comment but said FEMA’s mission is “to help people before, during, and after disasters, and our core values are fairness, respect, integrity, and compassion.”

A senior official declined to weigh in on the administration’s preferred vehicle for the additional funding, but officials repeatedly stressed the urgency of supporting impacted communities as climate change poses more extreme weather events.

“This request of supplemental funds is focused on the accounts that are most critical to aiding disaster survivors and impacted communities,” President Joe Biden said in a Monday letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson obtained by CNN.

Biden continued: “I urge the Congress to take immediate action.”

Young called on lawmakers to work together to pass the bill on a bipartisan basis, pointing to a long history of aid in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina, Sandy, and others.

“There’s no room for politics in disaster relief,” Young said.

“The Biden Harris administration stands ready to work with lawmakers to deliver the vital resources our communities need and expect with strong bipartisan and bicameral support,” she added.

CNN’s Ella Nilsen contributed to this report.

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