WASHINGTON — Congress is allocating more than $100 billion in emergency aid designed to address extensive damage caused by disasters after last week’s scramble to find consensus on a government spending bill.
The money comes after back-to-back hurricanes — Helene and Milton — slammed into the southeastern United States this fall, leaving havoc in their wake. But the money would go to much more than just those two storms under the bill signed Saturday by President Joe Biden that keeps the federal government funded through March 14.
Biden said in a statement that the bill “delivers the urgently needed disaster relief that I requested for recovering communities as well as the funds needed to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge ” in Baltimore, which collapsed under the impact of a massive container ship that lost power and veered off course in March.
The disaster funding looked set to pass earlier this week until President-elect Donald Trump issued new demands that tanked a compromise and threatened a pre-Christmas federal shutdown. A slimmed-down version cleared Congress early Saturday when Republicans abandoned Trump’s core request.
Here’s a look at what’s in the bill for disaster relief and where the money will go:
How much money is in the legislation for FEMA?
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund is essentially the country’s checkbook for emergencies. Out of it, the government reimburses states and local governments for things such as removing debris accumulated after hurricanes or overtime costs for firefighters and police who work during disasters.
It also includes money for individual residents, ranging from the $750 payments that disaster survivors can get to $42,500 that some uninsured homeowners can receive to help them rebuild.
Esther Manheimer, mayor of Asheville, the largest city in the North Carolina mountains that was hard hit by Helene, said city officials were pleased to see th additional disaster dollars.
It’s only been four weeks since Asheville residents could drink from and bathe in the water coming out of their faucets. Some businesses in western North Carolina have shuttered permanently or are struggling to survive, and well over 200 roads in the region remain closed.
In a statement earlier in the week, Manheimer emphasized that it was still going to be a long recovery and that “already we see the long-term economic, budgetary and employment impact Helene left in her wake.”
The disaster relief fund was nearly running on fumes after Helene and Milton. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell warned during a Senate hearing in November that the fund was down to $5 billion.
The Biden administration had asked Congress for about $40 billion for the relief fund but the bill eventually passed provides a lower amount, $29 billion.
It’s important to keep in mind that this isn’t the only money for the disaster relief fund, said Stan Gimont, a senior adviser for community recovery at Hagerty Consulting. He used to run the community development block grant program at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
More money can and likely will be designated to the fund later when Congress does a full-year appropriation, he said.
What else is in the bill?
There’s also about $21 billion in disaster assistance to help farmers.
North Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said earlier this week that he was pleased by the agricultural aid but that the state has a lot of specialty crops such as sweet potatoes and Christmas trees that are generally not covered by federal programs. He said he will have to wait and see what specifically ends up being covered.
“We are still evaluating the bill as there are a lot of nuances in it. The devil is in the details,” he said.
Other money will go toward rebuilding damaged roads and highways ($8 billion), while more money (about $12 billion) would go toward helping communities recover through HUD grants.
The block grant money is one of the key funds for homeowners who don’t have insurance or enough insurance to recover from disasters.
There’s also $2.2 billion for low-interest loans for businesses, nonprofits and homeowners trying to rebuild after a disaster.
But the money doesn’t go just toward local residents.
For example, there’s money for the military to address damage from hurricanes and typhoons and for a new hurricane hunter — the planes used to research hurricanes — and funds to help NASA rebuild hurricane-damaged facilities.
Is the money just for recovery from hurricanes Helene and Milton?
No. The money goes to cover more than those two disasters.
Some of the money is specifically earmarked for certain projects such as $1.5 billion designated for assistance after the largest wildfire in New Mexico’s recorded history — the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon fire — and the rebuilding of the Baltimore bridge.
But a lot of the money also goes more generally toward major disasters that happened in recent years.
The types of disasters covered in the legislation include droughts, wildfires, hurricanes, floods, derechos, and smoke exposure.
Gimont points out that disaster recovery can take a long time so the country is both paying for disasters that happened previously while it prepares for events that will happen in the future.
Take the massive Maui fire, for instance. It decimated the Hawaiian town of Lahaina last year, but Gimont said just the cleanup itself extended into late summer 2024.
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