Congress Indicates Bipartisan Support for Biden’s $100 Billion Disaster Relief Package

(L–R) House Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), House Speaker Mike Johnson, and House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) speak during the GOP weekly press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Nov. 19, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

WASHINGTON—House Republican leaders on Nov. 19 indicated that they would pass a disaster relief package submitted to Congress by President Joe Biden, which would provide nearly $100 billion in assistance to areas affected by recent hurricanes.

On Nov. 18, the White House published a letter written by Biden to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), requesting $98.6 billion in funding for several agencies to run programs to support victims of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which heavily damaged parts of North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, and Florida in recent months. The request would also provide funds for the reconstruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, which collapsed after being hit by a container ship on March 26 this year.

“From rebuilding homes and reopening critical infrastructure, such as schools and roads—to supporting the Nation’s farmers and ranchers and ensuring access to healthcare services impacted communities await your response. There can be no delay,” Biden wrote in his letter. “This request of supplemental funds is focused on the accounts that are most critical to aiding disaster survivors and impacted communities.”

During a Tuesday press conference by the leadership of the House Republican Conference, Johnson indicated his support for the package.

“We’re going to continue to provide for the American people with the resources that are desperately needed,” Johnson said. “These communities can be rebuilt responsibly, and Congress has a role to play in all that.”

Johnson was flanked by Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), and Conference Vice Chair Blake Moore (R-Utah).

Johnson did not indicate whether he'd support the full amount of $98.6 billion being included in the package. However, his remarks indicated that Congress would consider the request in the lame-duck session of the body, which will end on Jan. 3, 2025, when the 119th Congress takes office.

The large price tag may elicit opposition from some fiscal conservatives in the Senate and House who have criticized big spending bills during the Biden administration. However, Senate Democrats—who will lose control of the Senate in the next Congress—have suggested they will make disaster relief a priority.

“Getting a comprehensive, bipartisan, disaster relief package negotiated and passed as soon as possible must be a priority,” Senate President pro tempore Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who chairs the Appropriations Committee, said on Nov. 13. She indicated that the committee would meet to discuss such a package soon.

Already, clashes over the price tag have prevented action. In the Senate, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blocked a unanimous-consent measure that would refinance the Small Business Administration’s disaster relief loan account with $550 million, insisting that his amendment to rescind $810 million in green energy loans under the Inflation Reduction Act be included to offset the cost.

“I know about the devastation, [but] the reason why we won’t do this in a responsible way is because the Senate voted to send all your money to Ukraine,” Paul said on the Senate floor on Nov. 14. “We don’t have the money. We’re $2 trillion in the hole. Interest this year is going to be a trillion dollars.”

Members of Congress chimed in immediately following the announcement of the president’s request, indicating their conditions for support. Some want the inclusion of certain measures to benefit their constituencies.

“Any disaster relief package must include RECA - the Americans the federal government poisoned in Missouri and around the nation have been waiting for decades,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) wrote on X.

RECA refers to the “Radiation Exposure Compensation Act,” a bill that would compensate persons affected by radiation following land nuclear tests after WWII, as well as those who worked in the uranium industry.

“We need to make sure that the [agriculture] specific package moves with the global disaster relief package,” said Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.), whose district was affected by the storms. “Our producers can’t survive 24 months without something being done. ...We expect it to be done before the end of the year.”