When Congress was debating a short-term government funding resolution last month, Democrats pushed for the bill to include billions in additional disaster-relief funding. A cohort of far-right conservatives favored a stripped-down resolution that didn’t include the extra disaster-relief money — and ultimately got their way.
The approved measure did, however, extend the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s funding through the end of the year; it just did not infuse FEMA — which is already operating at a deficit — with any additional funding in the heart of hurricane season. “The right-wingers here, the MAGA crowd, even after disasters happen, they have opposed disaster aid for communities in need,” Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) told Politico after the stop-gap bill passed.
The concessions still weren’t enough for the nearly 100 Republicans in the House and Senate who voted against the resolution that passed — and the $20 billion funding base it allocated to FEMA as Hurricane Helene bore down on the East Coast. Many of those Republicans represent Florida, which is now bracing for Hurricane Milton. Reps. Aaron Bean, Gus Bilirakis, Kat Cammack, Byron Donalds, Matt Gaetz, Laurel Lee, Anna Paulina Luna, Cory Mills, Bill Posey, Mike Waltz, and Daniel Webster all voted against the bill in the House.
Some of the Republicans who voted against funding FEMA are now calling for more money.
“Cut the crap. We need FEMA DOLLARS FREE’D UP,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna posted on X Monday. On Tuesday, Luna introduced legislation to allocate $10 billion from FEMA for disaster relief in Florida.
Luna represents Clearwater and St. Petersburg on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Her district could be significantly impacted by Hurricane Milton. Following Hurricane Helene, Luna said in a statement that her “constituents in Pinellas County depend on Congress to take swift and decisive action in the wake of this unprecedented disaster caused by Hurricane Helene,” adding: “I am ready and willing to return to Washington and ensure our communities receive the critical resources necessary for a rapid recovery.”
Gaetz, who also voted against funding FEMA, said in a post on X that “FEMA is absolutely botching hurricane relief efforts.”
He is also pushing the lie that FEMA misused disaster relief funds on undocumented migrants. Former President Donald Trump has made similar claims, as did another Florida Republican who voted against the stop-gap bill, Cammack. “I started ringing the alarm on FEMA using money for illegals instead of Americans years ago,” she wrote on X, quoting a post from 2022 about FEMA using funds on undocumented migrants.
FEMA’s operating budget, some of which does go to undocumented migrants, and its congressionally appropriated disaster-relief budget are separate. Trump, not Biden, pulled money from FEMA’s disaster-relief fund to use at the border.
All 11 Florida House Republicans who voted against keeping the government — and FEMA — funded last month just days later signed a bipartisan letter addressed to Biden calling for “direct federal assistance” to the state in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
The Biden administration has drawn praise from local lawmakers representing both parties for its response to the devastation across the Southeast, and FEMA said that as of Sunday it has provided more than $137 million in aid to six states. Biden sent a letter to congressional leaders last week noting how FEMA and other government agencies are “performing critical life-saving and life-sustaining missions and will continue to do so within present funding levels,” and that he “fully expect[s] that the Congress will do its part to provide the funding needed.”
When House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) was asked about the letter by Fox News on Sunday, and whether he will call Congress back for an emergency session to allocate more funding, Johnson effectively shrugged, saying it’s going to take some time to figure out the cost of the damage. “We’ll be back in session immediately after the election,” he said.
