Republicans have been deeply irritated by an admission made by former Homeland Security ( DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that the department’s Federal Emergency Management Agency ( FEMA ) is running out of money to deal with incoming hurricanes.
Infuriated GOP lawmakers have attributed a lack of money to the Biden-Harris supervision and Mayorkas to the lack of funding for a hurricane recovery period in the upcoming year’s season. Democrats claim that FEMA should have devoted resources to the border crisis to addressing its normal disaster response.
” We have the basic requirements at hand best today.”  , On a continuous solution, we have money, but that is not a steady source of supply, if you will”, Mayorkas said aboard Air Force One Wednesday while headed to South Carolina with President Joe Biden.
Mayorkas compared the hurricane season to ending on November 30 to” we are anticipating another storms hitting.” ” We do not have the money.  , FEMA does not have the money  , to make it through the winter and what — what is immediate”.
Trump’s claims that immigrants are taking storms money are rejected by FEMA.
Former US President Donald Trump claimed that Biden used money from FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund to use it to deal with the frontier problems.
” The Harris-Biden administration says they do n’t have any money ]for hurricane relief]. … They spent it all on illegal refugees”, Trump said during a campaign rally in Saginaw, Michigan, on Thursday. They” stole the FEMA income,” just like they did it from a lender, in order to give it to their illegal immigrants who want to vote for them.
FEMA’s hurricane answer coffers are quick, but not because the company moved cash to listen to migrants at the southern border, DHS retorted.
” These claims are entirely false”, DHS said in a statement. The Shelter and Services Program ( SSP) is a completely independent, appropriated grant program that was authorized and funded by Congress and is independent of FEMA’s disaster-related authorities or funding sources.
FEMA disaster money was not increased by Congress.
Due to the emergency situation it has presented to border communities and cities in the United States that have received high numbers of immigrants, FEMA has spent more than$ 1 billion on border-related issues.
According to information on FEMA’s website, Congress provided more than$ 1 billion in FY 2023 and FY 2024 to pay reimbursement to nonprofits and state and city governments for the costs of providing food and shelter to immigrants who the Border Patrol released.
Congress grants funding to FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program, and DHS, in the opinion of the DHS, could not have used funds from another FEMA software to fill the gap.
In 2023, the DHS and FEMA announced$ 363 million to FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program. In 2024, FEMA put$ 650 million toward the SSP.
The need for more disaster cash
More natural tragedies have occurred to FEMA than it did a decade ago, making the organization in need of more funding than it had previously. According to FEMA, catastrophe struck twice as frequently in 2023 as they did in 2016.
Congress in Washington feigned the possibility of adding more than$ 10 billion in supplemental funding to the continuing resolution that was passed last month because FEMA had$ 20 billion to respond to natural disasters this year.
Biden has considered calling Congress back to town despite the election corner due to the funding gap caused by the hurricane time. If politicians made a second visit to Capitol Hill, they might go additional revenue to keep FEMA’s finances in order for the rest of the time.
” That is something I may have to ask, but no deal’s been made however”, Biden told investigators on Sept. 30.
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Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL ), whose home state frequently experiences destructive hurricanes, suggested that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY ) should “immediately reconvene” the upper chamber to approve additional funding for disaster relief once FEMA has finished its review of images throughout the southeast region.
According to Scott,” Citizens are resilient, but the government needs to support them at every level in order to restore individuals and businesses to normal,” he said in a statement.
