President Joe Biden called for lawmakers to provide significantly more emergency funding to help natural disaster recovery efforts during a visit to the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Washington Thursday after the landfall of Hurricane Idalia.
(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden called for lawmakers to provide significantly more emergency funding to help natural disaster recovery efforts during a visit to the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Washington Thursday after the landfall of Hurricane Idalia.
“We’re gonna need a whole hell of a lot more money to deal all you’re taking care of,” Biden said Thursday.
The White House has proposed a $40 billion supplemental funding request that includes $12 billion to replenish federal disaster funds and more than $20 billion for humanitarian and weapons assistance for Ukraine. But Republican lawmakers have criticized the ask, saying the White House should separate the two issues and consider offsetting foreign assistance from elsewhere in the budget.
On Thursday, Biden expressed disbelief with lawmakers who did not support the emergency request.
“I’m not even sure what their thinking is,” Biden said, adding that lawmakers needed to pass legislation authorizing the additional spending within the next month. He also suggested some Republican opposition could be rooted in climate change denialism.
“There’s still some deniers out there in terms of whether or not climate change has anything to do with any of this,” Biden said.
Separately, Biden said he had spoken a third time with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Thursday to coordinate the emergency response to the storm, which resulted in flooding across a wide swath of northern Florida.
“Seems like we should be on direct dial, the two of us,” Biden said of the governor, who is campaigning for the Republican nomination to challenge him in 2024.
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