Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) does not have enough money to make it through the hurricane season, and lawmakers representing areas devastated by Hurricane Helene are voicing their frustration.
“We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have,” Mayorkas told reporters aboard Air Force One on Oct. 2.
But officials expect another hurricane to hit before the end of the season on Nov. 30, and FEMA “does not have the funds” to last that long, Mayorkas said.
That reality did not sit well with Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.), where Helene left catastrophic damage in her wake.
“It’s outrageous that the Biden-Harris administration claims that FEMA may not have the money to make it through hurricane season after they allocated over $1.4 billion to house illegal aliens who should have never been in this country,” Budd wrote on Oct. 3 on X.
Helene barreled through the Southeast last week, making landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane. The storm hammered Florida’s Gulf Coast with record storm surges and brutal winds before pommeling the rest of the region with historic flooding, wiping out entire towns.
At least 215 people have died, with rescue efforts still underway.
FEMA personnel have been at work delivering meals, water, generators, and other supplies to survivors. But with the agency’s coffers about to run dry, President Joe Biden has suggested that he may request an emergency spending package to replenish its reserves.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has given no indication that he intends to bring such a package up for a vote, though Congress recently allocated $20 billion for FEMA’s disaster relief efforts in a short-term spending bill to fund the government through Dec. 20.
Other Republicans, like Budd, have been quick to point out that the agency’s recent expenditures were to benefit noncitizens.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who represents the hard-hit Clearwater area in Pinellas County, said the funds should “be used to house Pinellas residents!” she wrote in an X post.
President Joe Biden visited affected communities in Florida and Georgia on Oct. 3 after surveying the damage in the Carolinas the day prior.
“You’ve been through hell,” Biden told residents in Ray City, Georgia. “And I want you to know, I see you, I hear you, I agree with you, and I promise you, we have your back.”
More than 150,000 households have registered for FEMA assistance, according to Frank Matranga, an agency representative. That number is expected to climb as rescue and recovery efforts continue.
