The remaining money in the federal government’s disaster relief fund will be prioritized for a string of recent and anticipated disasters, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials.
The immediate needs funding will also be used for “any other extreme weather events that are coming our way without interruption,” Ms. Criswell said, noting that the United States is now approaching peak hurricane season.
Meanwhile, the agency will continue to “meet the immediate needs of survivors through the remaining weeks of the fiscal year,” Ms. Criswell said.
“In addition to responding to the current storms, as well as other incidents, we have to remain focused on making sure that we are also preparing people across the nation for these types of extreme weather events,” Ms. Criswell added.
With the implementation of Immediate Needs Funding to help state, local, tribal, and territorial governments respond to the most critical recent and anticipated disasters, other funding for long-term recovery projects and hazard mitigation projects will be put on hold pending congressional action to ensure FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund is topped up.
The fund currently has a balance of $3.4 billion, Ms. Criswell told reporters.
She also stressed that while the immediate needs funding ensures the government can continue to respond to disasters, it is not a permanent solution.
Current Funding Will Last Until End of Year
“Congress must work with us on the supplemental request that the administration has made on behalf of FEMA,” she said, noting that the agency has requested $12 billion from Congress as a “bridge to get us through the end of the fiscal year.”“If we continue to see more storms, we’re going to continuously monitor very closely the health of the Disaster Relief Fund to determine what more may be needed,” the FEMA administrator said, noting that as of now, the $12 billion supplemental request “will get us through the end of this fiscal year.”
In the meantime, the agency will start to move some of its recovery projects and delay them until the next fiscal year, Ms. Criswell said.
Some lawmakers, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), have urged lawmakers to pass critical funding for disaster relief programs while separately considering military aid for Ukraine.
Biden Admin ‘Playing Games With FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund’
Elsewhere, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), in an Aug. 29 statement, accused the Biden administration of “playing games with FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund” by insisting that the critical domestic aid be tied to foreign aid for Ukraine.“We’ve had enough with Washington playing politics and demand that Congress does what’s right for American families, starting with ensuring our federal government has all the resources it needs to show up after disasters, now and in the future,” Mr. Scott said.
Despite its precariously low budget, Ms. Criswell stressed that FEMA has staff members available to respond to and support multiple large events simultaneously.
“We do have several open recovery disasters that we can pull some personnel from if we needed to extend or increase the amount of personnel we have,” she said Tuesday. “We can also reach out to all members of the Department of Homeland Security through what we call the Surge Capacity Force for individuals that have volunteered to support during a disaster.
“And so, I’m confident right now that with these two storms that we’re currently dealing with in Maui and this one—or even another one to come—that we have enough personnel to go in and support these immediate lifesaving efforts,” Ms. Criswell concluded.
