This past weekend, President Joe Biden visited Florida — again — to survey the damage that a hurricane left in Tampa Bay and to address the community.
The president empathized with residents, citing the loss of possessions like family pictures and his daughter’s drawings after his Delaware home was struck by lightning in 2004. He also praised recovery efforts by FEMA and all levels of government.
Biden also announced $612 million in funding from the Department of Energy to pay for six recovery projects that “will not only restore power, but will make the region’s power systems stronger and more capable, and reduce the frequency and duration of power outages, while extreme weather events become more frequent.”
This occurred on the same day that House Speaker Mike Johnson said in an interview on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that ending Congress’ October recess early to negotiate a disaster relief package would be “premature,” even though thge measure has gained bipartisan support.
Although FEMA says it has enough funding for current recovery operations, there are expectations that it will need more. The Biden administration has said the Small Businesses Administration’s disaster loan program will “run out of funding in a matter of weeks and well before the Congress is planning to reconvene.”
The House leader said in an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press” that the needs of these programs take time to calculate.
“Now FEMA has received thousands of applications already and they’re going through that laborious process of affirming and confirming,” he said. “But…we will cover the needs of small businesses. Congress is all on board.”
