Senators see bipartisan need for disaster funding

A year characterized by a series of natural disasters across the country has legislators agreeing on the need for a bipartisan spending bill intended to aid states in recovery and resilience efforts.

That was the consensus that appeared to emerge at a Wednesday hearing of the full Senate Appropriations Committee. At the hearing, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. joined Sen. Jon Ossof, D-Ga., in testifying to urge their colleagues to support the disaster relief funding package. Those impacted "don't need tears, they need action," Tillis said.

Biden administration officials testifying included Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the Small Business Administration Administrator Isabel Guzman, Agriculture Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small, Department of Housing and Urban Development Deputy Secretary Adrianne Todman, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell.

While all agencies made appeals to the committee, the largest request was FEMA's plea for nearly $100 billion in supplemental funding. Such funding is crucial for many issuers of municipal bonds who are impacted by natural disasters that are both extremely costly to rebuild from and which negatively impact local economies.

"We now face increased challenges due to increased disaster demands," Criswell said. "This shortfall underscores an urgent reality: the Direct Relief Fund needs sufficient additional funding to handle the scale and intensity of today's disasters, particularly as we face the aftermath of not only Hurricanes Helene and Milton, but also the Maui wildfires and other emergencies."

While FEMA did receive $20.2 billion in the most continuing resolution to fund the government, Criswell explained that as of today the DRF has been depleted to less than $5 billion due to rising operational needs. She continued by saying that if there were to be another disaster today, the rest of the agency's funds would be completely wiped out, leaving municipal leaders alone to deal with the repercussions.

Due to the unprecedented requests for aid this year, FEMA was forced to pause Immediate Needs Funding. While it allowed funds to be preserved for lifesaving activities, the result was the halt of over $8.8 billion intended for critical recovery projects.

"The pause impacted communities across the country, delaying repairs to vital infrastructure and leaving long-lasting effects on communities' capabilities to build back better and stronger," Criswell said.

Buttigieg additionally highlighted the necessity of preserving critical infrastructure, pointing to the ways in which a focus on resilience measures before disasters strike is crucial to preservation.

"We have seen an increase in the number of severe weather events, not just the number but also the complexity of their impacts, and it's making the recovery harder," Buttigieg said. "But I have also seen that where we have invested in resiliency we have seen minimal damage, proof that that investment makes a big difference?what we need is more communities to understand this better. If we can have a coordinated effort through a national strategy, it would help communities develop this type of resilience plan."

The hearing follows Tillis' introduction of The Restoring an Economic Lifeline with Immediate Emergency Funding Act last week, which would have appropriated $550 million to fund the SBA Disaster Loan Program Account. The bill was blocked by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., after a unanimous consent vote in the Senate.

Throughout the hearing, legislators called attention to the devastation in their respective states. Sens. Jerry Moran, R-Kan. and Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., highlighted the struggles of agricultural producers, while others discussed the impacts of Hurricanes Helene and Milton and the difficulties in getting aid to smaller communities. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., referenced the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, bringing attention again to the topic of critical infrastructure and its funding.

Currently, there are over 100 open disasters across the United States, with over 1 million citizens and dozens of states relying on federal support.

"We have to make sure people have faith in their government," Criswell said. "People must know that the programs [the government] is providing them are going to be there to help them."