House Speaker Mike Johnson plainly rejected calls for Congress to return to pass more funding bills for hurricane victims, claiming that FEMA already had “what they need” at the moment.
In an interview with Margaret Brennan on CBS' Face the Nation Sunday, he played down calls from both sides of the aisle for Congress to return from recess.
“It can wait because remember the day before Hurricane Helene made landfall and went up through the states and wound up in Senator Tillis state of North Carolina, Congress appropriated $20 billion additional to FEMA so that they would have the necessary resources to address immediate needs,” he said.
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“We put that into the coffers. I just checked as of this morning, less than two percent of that has actually been distributed.”
He also laid the blame on FEMA for failing to “do its job.”
“We need FEMA to do its job,” Johnson explained. “Those funds, that money, is provided so that storm victims can have the immediate necessities met. And then what happens after every storm is that the states have to asses and calculate the actual needs, and they submit to Congress that request. As soon as that is done, Congress will meet and in bipartisan fashion we will address those needs. We will provide the additional resources.”
“It would be premature to call back everyone now because these storms are so large in their scope and magnitude that it’s going to take a little bit of time to make those calculations.”
Brennan challenged Johnson on the claim that a small percentage of the money had already been spent, citing FEMA director’s comments that 9 billion dollars of Congress’ package had already been used.
“They have obligated some funds,” Johnson responded. “But they have only distributed two per cent. The rescue and recovery efforts are still going on and then we address the rest of it. FEMA was slow to respond.”
“They did not do the job that we all hope and expect that they will do, and there’s going to be a lot of assessment about that in the days ahead.
The government agency has found itself at center of a political storm, with US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas claiming it did not have enough money to get it through the hurricane season last week before walking it back shortly after. Trump and his allies, however, have pushed false claims that the hurricane relief has been spent on migrant care.
Johnson also claimed Congress could not simply designate funding without due planning.
“Congress cannot meet and just send money on a guess or an estimate of what the damages are. The way supplemental disaster funding is provided is that the state send in their actual needs. It’s assessed by Congress and then handed out that way. They have tens of billions of dollars that were already sent to FEMA one day before Helene made landfall.
“They have plenty of resources. In fact the administration, Secretary Mayorkas said himself… he said just a few days ago on his telecast in the media that they have what they need right now. “
Brennan was told by Mayorkas that Congress needed to approve more funding for the Disaster Relief Fund earlier in the day, adding to the cyclone of confusion surrounding true and false information on FEMA’s sources of income.
