WASHINGTON (AP) — The money available to help communities hit by disasters has shrunk after back-to-back hurricanes Helene and Milton , and the funding problems might jeopardize the government's ability to respond to new emergencies in the future, the Federal Emergency Management Agency chief said Wednesday. Deanne Criswell warned during a Senate hearing with other agency heads that FEMA's disaster relief fund — the country’s emergency checkbook — is down to less than $5 billion. The Biden administration has asked Congress for nearly $100 billion for disaster aid.
The largest chunk of that money, about $40 billion, would go to FEMA's disaster relief fund. The agency draws on that fund to pay for things like debris removal, helping communities rebuild public infrastructure and giving money to disaster survivors for costs including renting hotel rooms if their homes are uninhabitable. The rest of the money would be split across other federal agencies: — $24 billion for farmers who have experienced crop or livestock losses.
—$12 billion for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s block grant programs to help communities recover. — $8 billion for rebuilding and repairing highways and bridges. — $4 billion for long-term water system upgrades to mitigate future damage from natural disasters.
FEMA got $20.2 billion as part of a temporary government funding bill passed by Congress in September. But a little less than half of that money went toward recovery.