President Joe Biden has been doing all he can to send relief to states in the Southeast still reeling from the impact of Hurricane Helene despite the Republican Party's lies about the lack of a response from the White House.
This year's hurricane season is already setting deadly records, and FEMA funds are in grave danger of running out long before it ends. Congress was still in pre-election recess as Hurricane Milton was upgraded to a Category 4 on Monday, with evacuations in progress in Helene-battered Florida. President Biden is urging Congress to come back from its pre-election recess to vote on increasing FEMA funding, butHouse Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was still refusing despite the obvious need for more aid.
In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Johnson was asked about President Biden’s letter to congressional leaders sent on Friday requesting more money for federal disaster recovery efforts after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned that the department doesn’t have enough money to get through the rest of hurricane season.
Johnson noted that before Congress went on recess, the day before Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida, Congress appropriated $20 billion additional dollars to FEMA to address immediate needs. But Helene's impact was far worse than predicted, and President Biden has made it clear that the states can't wait until after the election to receive aid.
Both President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have toured some of the damage from Hurricane Helene and have vowed to keep putting pressure on Republicans to return to Congress to vote on increasing funding.