The Federal Emergency Management Agency released more than $5 billion in disaster recovery money — shortly after the Trump administration said it was halting such funding.
“This week, FEMA released over $5 billion in recovery funding for projects, some of which date back to disasters that happened more than 15 years ago,” a FEMA spokesperson told POLITICO.
Four days earlier, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose department oversees the agency, announced that FEMA funding “will not move forward for ongoing or legacy disasters.”
“FEMA has entered emergency operating status, and is scaling back to bare-minimum, life-saving operations only,” she added. Noem said she imposed the restrictions to preserve the agency’s budget for emergencies after funding for the Department of Homeland Security lapsed Feb. 14.
FEMA has remained open during the partial DHS shutdown. But the release of $5 billion will drain a large portion of the agency’s reserves, raising the prospect that FEMA will struggle to respond to new disasters.
“The Disaster Relief Fund has been drastically depleted,” the FEMA spokesperson said, blaming Democrats in Congress for the funding lapse.
The Trump administration has been under pressure from states and their representatives in Congress to release disaster funds, which have been held up since Noem began reviewing all allocations of $100,000 or more.
“Over the last year, we have heard directly from state and local leaders who represent American communities that have waited for years to receive funding for critical projects,” the FEMA spokesperson said. “That’s why Secretary Noem has broken through red tape and expedited funding requests.”
FEMA reimburses states for most cleanup and repair costs after a disaster through a process that often takes years and keeps disasters active for as long as two decades. Noem’s reviews further slowed the reimbursements, prompting senators and governors to appeal personally to administration officials.
“These resources should have gone out the door many months ago, but Secretary Noem has personally prevented disaster aid from reaching Americans trying to rebuild and recover. What a transparent political ploy— are disaster relief funds only going to get out when DHS is shut down?” Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement.
“It’s good that these funds are finally flowing, but communities nationwide have already paid an unacceptable toll because of Kristi Noem’s disastrous mismanagement of FEMA,” Murray added.
DHS has not posted any information on its website about the $5 billion, in contrast to a Jan. 29 news release announcing $2.2 billion in disaster funding to 10 states and a Jan. 30 release announcing $480 million for disaster recovery in Florida. The website has been active since the partial DHS shutdown.
The $5 billion comes out of FEMA’s dwindling Disaster Relief Fund. FEMA told Congress in late January that the fund had $7.1 billion. POLITICO’s E&E News reported Monday that the agency had told Congress last week the disaster fund had $9.6 billion.
The restrictions Noem imposed Sunday mark the 11th time since 2003 that FEMA has suspended funding for long-term disaster recovery projects, such as rebuilding public facilities, based on budget constraints. FEMA typically has restricted spending when the disaster fund drops to roughly $3 billion.
The White House is pointing to dwindling disaster aid as a top reason Democrats should accept the latest Republican offer to fund DHS amid negotiations to curtail the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics. The department’s funding lapsed Feb. 14 after congressional budget negotiations broke down as Democrats sought to restrict DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
A White House spokesperson granted anonymity to discuss the private negotiations called the latest GOP bid a “serious counteroffer,” challenging Democrats to “make a move to end the shutdown before more Americans are harmed by a lack of funding for critical services like disaster relief.”
Many Democrats on Capitol Hill have proposed fully funding FEMA and other parts of DHS while holding back money for ICE and DHS’s Customs and Border Protection in the absence of immigration policy changes. But top Republicans continue to reject that idea.
“I’ve been saying for weeks that Republicans should stop holding up DHS funding,” said Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a senior Democratic appropriator who supports promptly funding DHS agencies other than ICE and CBP. “It’s pretty clear that the Trump administration is not serious about reining in their ICE operations.”
Even before DHS funding lapsed this month, U.S. cities hosting World Cup games this summer had been clamoring for billions of dollars FEMA is supposed to dole out for security ahead of the international sporting event.
The tax and spending package Republicans enacted along party lines last year provided $625 million in security funding for cities hosting World Cup games, and the Trump administration told host cities they would hear back by the end of January about how much assistance they are getting. But FEMA has yet to announce awards, prompting some local officials to threaten to withhold stadium licenses.
Alex Gangitano contributed to this report.
