President Joe Biden joined the growing calls to reconvene Congress in the wake of the devastation in the south by back-to-back hurricanes as funding reached dire levels.
President Joe Biden on Thursday joined growing calls from Democrats and even one Republican to bring Congress back to pass certain additional disaster aid funding in the wake of the devastation in southeastern states caused by back-to-back hurricanes.
Biden told reporters that the Small Business Administration is “pretty right at the edge now”, and it would take “several billion dollars” to help businesses recover in the affected states.
“I think that Congress should be coming back and moving on emergency needs immediately”, he said, but notably did not say the same about Federal Emergency Management Agency funding before Election Day.
Former President Donald Trump has falsely claimed FEMA has run out of disaster funds because the money was “stolen” to use instead to help migrants, a claim the White House has strongly denied, saying the money comes from separate funding “spigots.”
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas insisted Thursday that FEMA has enough disaster funding to handle the immediate needs from Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton and related tornado damage.
