White House to consider additional FEMA disaster relief funds

The Biden Administration is expected to submit an emergency spending request for additional funding to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund before funds are expected to run dry at the end of the month.

That’s according to Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who said she’s put pressure on the Biden Administration to act, as this summer has put pressure on many state and local governments to respond to extreme weather events.

“I have been in contact with the Biden Administration about when they anticipate sending a supplemental to us for our consideration,” Collins said. “I expect that’s going to sent up sometime this month so that it can be considered in September.”

Last month FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund was projected, in a monthly report, to run a $133 million deficit in August and that was expected to grow to $8.6 billion by late September. 

Congress is in recess for the remainder of August but some lawmakers have already made efforts to get out in front of it. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., previously head of the state’s Division of Emergency Management, introduced a bill last month that would provide FEMA with $11.5 billion in supplemental funding. Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. and Rick Scott R-Fla. introduced their version in the Senate but so far, no votes have been scheduled.

“As the former director of emergency management for the State of Florida, the only one in Congress, I’m very concerned about the fact that FEMA is going to run out of federal funds to help in the middle of hurricane season,” Moskowitz said.”It’s predicted they’re going to run out in August.”

“The idea that we’ll have an event and then try to fund it, well, that’s going to hurt response, that’s going to hurt recovery,” Moscowitz added. 

But even when FEMA funding levels remain high, state and local governments must cover the costs of the damage upfront and apply for assistance after the fact. FEMA will provide reimbursement grants of at least 75% of eligible costs and state and local governments share the remaining 25%.

For states like Florida, where natural disasters are a somewhat regular occurrence, providing the funding up front isn’t a major concern. For instance, Hurricane Ian touched down in Sept. 2022 and was estimated a month later to cost the state $1.8 billion. 

“While the total net fiscal impact is unknown, the State has sufficient reserves to fund the disaster recovery efforts, and has sufficient liquidity to cover expenses in advance of FEMA reimbursements,” a report by the State of Florida said. 

Others aren’t positioned so well. New Hampshire, along with others in the Northeast, has experienced significant flooding this summer and applied for FEMA disaster relief assistance last month. But when the damage is spread across multiple towns and counties, as they have in New Hampshire, fixing the damage becomes more difficult.

“Our budgets aren’t large budgets,” town administrator for Winchester, New Hampshire Kathy Miner said in response to the flooding damage. “So when a storm or something of this magnitude happens – for instance, a $200,000 culvert – that’s not just money we have sitting around.”

The supplemental spending request to keep FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund running could be attached to a stopgap funding measure, which would need to pass by Sept. 30 to avoid a partial government shutdown. 

That could also be a magnet for other funding measures, as Collins and other Republicans have said they hope to see additional defense funding concerning assistance to Ukraine in its war against Russia, and in the muni industry, Brett Bolton, vice president of federal legislative and regulatory policy at the Bond Dealers of America has said it’s a good opportunity to try and push through long-held muni priorities such as advance refunding.