Federal Officials Request Congress to Replenish Disaster Aid Funds

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Within these past couple of months, communities across the US are still picking up the pieces from devastating natural disasters. Money to deliver those loans and other funds are stretched thin or exhausted. Federal officials are pleading with congress to replenish those funds. 

On top of hurricanes Milton and Helene devastating the southern states, the need for disaster relief is in high demand.  

“We’ve seen a typhoon hit Guam last year which is still in recovery,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D- WA). “We've seen historic flooding in Vermont and deadly tornadoes in several of our states.” 

But the money isn’t there. This week, federal officials including from the Small Business Administration (SBA) and FEMA testified before congress. They said funds are stretched thin due to increased disaster demands.  

“FEMA did receive 20.2 billion dollars in the continuing resolution, yet the DRF (disaster relief fund) has been depleted to less than 5 billion dollars as of today due to the rising operational needs,” said FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell. “This shortfall underscores an urgent reality the DRF needs sufficient funding to handle the scale and intensity of today’s disasters.” 

Loans from the SBA have been exhausted.  

“SBA has also continued to process these loan applications, provide customer support and communicate directly to survivors while we wait for congress to appropriate funding to originate new loans and disperse those funds to the more than 12,500 victims waiting in the queue,” said SBA Administrator Isabel Guzman.  

Some members said there’s no time to wait to pass an additional supplemental bill.  

“These further delays impacts them,” said Guzman.  

The FEMA administrator was also grilled by members on their response to the recent hurricanes after a FEMA employee told workers to skip houses with campaign signs supporting President-Elect Donald Trump. FEMA said that was an isolated incident and that employee was fired.