Biden administration requesting roughly $100 billion for disaster relief

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.”

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 also 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.