Lawmakers are likely to need at least a few more weeks to finalize bill text and pass an assistance package through both chambers.
Lawmakers anticipate the Biden administration will send them a disaster aid request next week outlining needed relief following hurricanes Helene and Milton, according to the House’s top two appropriators.
Congressional leaders aim to then finalize and pass a bipartisan assistance package sometime after Thanksgiving that could total more than $100 billion, boosting aid to communities hit by the two hurricanes this fall, as well as a yearslong, nationwide backlog of recovery work for disasters like severe flooding, wildfires and landslides.
House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) and his Democratic counterpart, Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, both said they expect broad bipartisan support for clearing disaster aid in the coming weeks, even as the separate task of funding the government next month is complicated by the Hill’s changing balance of power.
