The Biden administration is asking Congress to approve $98.4 billion in emergency aid for disasters, including $24 billion for ag disasters (link). That funding would also go toward a permanent overhaul of pay for federal wildland firefighters and emergency food support programs, like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Programs for Women, Infants and Children or WIC, according to a fact sheet. Link to fact sheet.
The request is for the government’s response and recovery efforts following a series of natural disasters, including Hurricanes Helene and Milton that devastated parts of Southeastern states. The Federal Emergency Management Agency ($40 billion) and USDA would receive the bulk of the funding request, if lawmakers approve it in full, though they can increase, decrease, or ignore whatever they wish.
Other disaster aid levels:
• $12 billion for the Department of Housing and Urban Development for Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery programs.
• $8 billion for the Department of Transportation to repair roads and bridges throughout 40 states and territories that were “seriously damaged by natural disasters or catastrophic failures from external causes.”
• $4 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency for “long-term water system upgrades” as well as hazardous waste and debris clean up.
• $3 billion for the Health and Human Services Department, which Young said would help “build supply chain capacity and resilience for IV fluids and other critical medical products that became scarce during recent hurricanes.”
• $2 billion for the Small Business Administration for low-interest disaster loans.
• $2 billion for the Commerce Department for flexible economic development grants and to buy three “hurricane hunter” aircraft.
• $1 billion for the Education Department to aid schools in affected areas.
• $1 billion for the Energy Department to “support grid rebuilding, modernization and future hardening efforts in areas hardest hit by Hurricanes Helene and Milton and funding to implement energy recovery efforts in communities affected by the Maui wildfires,”
• $500 million for the Army Corps of Engineers to reimburse the cost of cleaning up wreckage after a ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland.
• $300 million for the State Department to “address the need for additional water infrastructure to prevent and reduce sewage flows and contamination at the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant” in California.
• $200 million for the Interior Department for several programs, including a permanent overhaul of federal wildland firefighter pay, repairing siphons on the St. Mary Canal in Montana and mapping hazard impacts.
• $200 million for the Department of Labor’s Dislocated Worker National Reserve.
• $100 million for the Legal Services Corporation for legal assistance for low-income disaster survivors.
• $100 million for AmeriCorps for disaster recovery projects.’
Congress is expected to begin vetting the supplemental spending request this week before departing on a one-week Thanksgiving break. It’s likely lawmakers and staff will release an emergency spending bill in early December when both chambers return for a three-week session.
“It is absolutely critical that these communities know that their government has not forgotten them,” White House budget director Shalanda Young said Monday in a briefing with reporters.