From AP News
President Donald Trump is promising billions to help Texas rebuild from Hurricane Harvey, but his Republican allies in the House are looking at cutting almost $1 billion from disaster accounts to help finance the president’s border wall.
The pending reduction to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief account is part of a spending bill that the House is scheduled to consider next week when Congress returns from its August recess. The $876 million cut, part of the 1,305-page measure’s homeland security section, pays for roughly half the cost of Trump’s down payment on a U.S.-Mexico border wall.
It seems sure that GOP leaders will move to reverse the disaster aid cut next week. The optics are politically bad and there’s only $2.3 billion remaining in disaster coffers.
Meanwhile, from NPR
FEMA is already in a delicate position financially. It’s over $23 billion in debt. The tragedy unfolding in Texas and Louisiana will cost billions more and may well drive the agency further underwater.
With only $2.3 billion dollars left in FEMA’s accounts and 10x that amount in debts, it’ll be interesting watching how Congress will update the proposed budget next week.
It’s clear that the support of FEMA only occurs when a “natural disaster” occurs, causes billions in damage for millions of people. One of the main supporters for the cut represents a state that has benefited a lot from an influx of relief funds after Sandy.
From Time
The FEMA cut is the handiwork of House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J. — the major force behind a $50 billion-plus 2013 Superstorm Sandy recovery package — and Rep. John Carter, whose home state of Texas is suffering badly from Harvey.
Where did the funds from Frelinghuysen’s $50 billion dollar recovery package come from in the budget? As many articles have written, it will be very difficult to justify a vote that cuts money from FEMA so soon after Harvey to the public. (Especially if you’re Rep. John Carter from Texas and born in Houston.)
Just before Sandy, the FEMA budget was cut by more than 50%. Post-Sandy, FEMA received more funding for disaster relief. FEMA’s budget remained pretty safe and some state governments began looking into local disaster relief. President Obama’s budget for 2016 included an additional $1 billion to address the larger or more frequent natural disasters from climate change. Now, only 5 years after Sandy, the current administration does not believe climate change will cause larger or more frequent natural disasters, any justification for the funding increase is lost and budget cuts are justified instead. So, while the $876 million cut may not occur this year, pay attention to whether a large FEMA budget is proposed in the next few years.
