Republicans in disaster-prone states, eager to present a united front during government funding talks, are shrugging off a disaster aid cliff — even as a storm barrels toward the Gulf Coast.
Those GOP lawmakers are backing a proposal from House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to extend government funding well into next year, leaving the issue to the new Congress and president.
Congressional Democrats and the White House would rather approve a stopgap into December and then pass the fiscal 2025 bills and have been sounding the alarm about the speaker’s plan lacking new money for certain disaster programs.
“Disasters happen,” said Florida Republican Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, chair of the State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee, when asked about Johnson’s continuing resolution. “This is what it is — it’s a CR. It’s not a do-all, fund-all, fix-all. It’s a CR. So, no, I’m not too concerned at this stage.”
The House is scheduled to vote on the measure — which is facing several Republican defections — on Wednesday, the same day Hurricane Francine is forecast to make landfall in Louisiana. The vote comes less than three weeks before federal disaster relief programs are due to run out of money.
The CR put forward by Johnson, whose home state could bear the brunt from Francine, would supply the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund beyond the Sept. 30 deadline at current levels and add an extra $10 billion. The White House requested more than twice that amount.
Democrats also argue the bill omits new funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s disaster relief block grant program, which helps communities recover after FEMA has left, as well as for the Small Business Administration’s disaster loans program and the Federal Highway Administration’s emergency relief fund, which helps states rebuild infrastructure.
“You’re not going to be able to deal with the disasters,” Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the House’s top Democratic appropriator, said Tuesday. “Disaster [funding] has got to be in there.”
DeLauro was in her district last Friday after flash floods took out a rail line. She said FEMA officials on the scene told her the agency “does not have the money” to help with the needed repairs. The disaster relief fund has already gone into a deficit that is projected to reach nearly $2 billion before the end of the month.
In its veto threat of the Johnson CR, the White House said, “Instead of working in a bipartisan manner to keep the Government open and provide emergency funding for disaster needs, House Republicans have chosen brinksmanship.”
Asked Tuesday whether Johnson’s CR does enough to maintain disaster programs, Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott said, “We’re in the middle of hurricane season, so maybe we’ll get lucky and have no landfalls.”
Rep. Greg Steube, another Florida Republican who earlier this year accomplished the rare feat of forcing a vote on his disaster relief bill, said he would not vote for the CR on Wednesday but clarified that the disaster funding omissions did not factor into his decision.
House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) has been supportive of approving additional disaster funding, especially after tornadoes ravaged parts of his home state earlier this year. When asked about the path forward Tuesday, he demurred.
“I think we’ll fill up the accounts,” he said. “I hope to, anyway. There’s a lot more that we have to deal with.”
The CR does include an extension of the National Flood Insurance Program. It would not extend other environmental programs that are due to lapse at the end of the month, and it does not include an extension of the farm bill.
Senate Democratic leaders have slammed Johnson’s funding proposal as “not serious” and promised to reject it. President Joe Biden has threatened to veto it.
Bridge funding in limbo
In addition to the disaster funding issue, Democrats have criticized House Republican leadership for not including a bipartisan provision in the stopgap funding bill that would authorize a 100 percent federal cost share for the rebuild of Baltimore’s collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge.
Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.), whose district includes the bridge span, said Tuesday that members of the Maryland congressional delegation were going to meet “one more time” to try to chart a path forward for the needed funding, or at least the authorization.
“We need the authorization, because if we’ve got that, we can always get the money,” Mfume said. “It’s been disturbing, I can tell you that. This really should not be a partisan issue. This is a major structure that affects the whole country, supply chain and everything else.”
Cole said this week that he thinks Congress won’t address the bridge funding issue until after the November elections.
