Biden to ask Congress for one more $4B to spice up FEMA catastrophe reduction fund

The Biden administration is asking Congress to approve a further $4 billion to replenish the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund, which has been taxed by a brutal stretch of maximum climate throughout the nation this yr.

The request, made Friday, is along with the $12 billion in emergency spending that President Biden requested Congress to offer final month. It additionally comes someday after Mr. Biden known as on Congress to cross extra reduction funds for FEMA throughout remarks on Hurricane Idalia, which left a path of devastation throughout a number of southern states.

“Given the intensity of disaster activity around the nation — including fires on Maui, in Louisiana and across the country, massive flooding in Vermont and now a major hurricane that hit Florida and the Southeast — the administration is seeking an additional $4 billion for FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund,” a White House Office of Management and Budget spokesperson mentioned in a press release.

Mr. Biden will journey to Florida on Saturday to survey harm from Hurricane Idalia, which was later downgraded to a tropical storm.

On Thursday, Mr. Biden visited FEMA headquarters to satisfy with workers and had pizzas delivered for them. During his go to, he urged Congress to shortly approve the catastrophe reduction funds.

“Some of .. my former colleagues in the Senate… think that this disaster relief money we’re asking [for] to continue to finish the job so far, and have enough money to continue to work to save the American people—their lives, their homes, their well-being—is somehow not needed,” Mr. Biden mentioned.