Hurricane Helene was a massive storm that caused devastation across multiple states. Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia are all emergency disaster areas receiving federal funds and resources.
While this should be a time to put partisan differences aside and work together to get our fellow Americans back on their feet and into their homes, the division in DC, combined with an election one month away, has lies and misinformation flowing all day long on social networks and through political influencers.
Let’s clear up the confusion.
Approval Of Requests Was Quick
The initial misinformation was that Biden wasn’t taking care of the affected states when, in reality, almost all requests for emergency support were approved before the hurricane made landfall. Throughout his presidency, Biden has been quick to approve federal support for disasters, including the Hawaii fires in August of last year.
Governors Praised Federal Response
“I'm incredibly appreciative of the rapid response and the cooperation from the federal team at FEMA. I've been on the phone over the weekend with the senior FEMA administrator. The team has been deployed.” - Glenn Youngkin, Virginia
“The president just called me yesterday afternoon. I missed him and called him right back. And he just said, ‘Hey, what do you need?’ And I told him, you know, we got what we need. We'll work through the federal process. [Biden] offered that if there's other things we need, just to call him directly, which, I appreciate that. But we’ve had FEMA embedded with us since, you know, a day or two before the storm hit.” - Brian Kemp, Georgia
Henry McMaster, South Carolina, on the federal Helene response: "It has been superb. President Biden said that whatever we need to let him know. And we’re doing that. Also Secretary Buttigieg called yesterday and said the same thing. And also Deanne Criswell from FEMA called."
“We’re grateful to President Biden, FEMA and all of our federal partners for their support and commitment to helping our state respond, recover and rebuild from this disaster.” - Roy Cooper North Carolina
Migrants Didn’t Take Disaster Funding
FEMA has different programs, with separate funding allocated to each program. One of those is the Shelter and Services Program.
$640 million was allocated for the SSP for 2024. Those funds go towards non-federal entities that provide humanitarian services for migrants once they leave holding facilities. These migrants are primarily here legally awaiting asylum hearings.
America doesn't have enough holding facilities to house all of the migrants awaiting asylum hearings, and Republicans directly opposed funding for more facilities in the past. Doing so doesn't erase the cost. It moves the cost to this type of humanitarian funding.
Republicans also killed the bipartisan border bill, which would have fixed the asylum system so that the hearings backlog decreased from years to months. This would have quickly reduced the number of migrants in the US, which would have reduced spending on migrants.
The border bill also would have changed the law to let migrants awaiting asylum apply for a work permit much sooner, allowing them to contribute to the economy instead of taking from it.
No SSP funding was taken from Disaster Relief, which has a ~$23 billion budget. But there are two things to note about that budget.
Because disasters are unpredictable, the budget primarily covers the prior year's disasters. Emergency supplemental appropriations are used to get funds to cover new emergencies, like Hurricane Helene. This is how FEMA has worked for a long time.
Disaster Relief also faced a $2 billion shortfall. It needed to catch up on reimbursing states for previous fires and floods because it has been an expensive disaster year.
Instead of passing a budget, which would have included the increased disaster budget that FEMA asked for, Congress made zero progress on the budget and passed a continuing resolution. The continuing resolution didn't solve all of the current issues with the Disaster Relief program, nor did it include any emergency supplemental for this storm.
Disaster Survivors Get More Than $750
There has been a lot of complaining that disaster survivors only get $750. This isn’t true.
One FEMA grant gives $750 for food, baby supplies, or other emergency items. However, this is not all that people receive. In addition to the food, water, and other goods provided for free on-site, disaster survivors can apply for different grants that cover the cost of rebuilding homes, replacing property, and paying for a place to stay while everything is being taken care of.
These grants do not need to be repaid.
This is the type of situation our country continues to find itself in. Complete misinformation distracts from the real issues in an effort to enflame the partisan culture war or to win elections.
The only way this changes is for Americans to become more informed on the issues and be willing to hold politicians accountable for lying and not doing their jobs, even if they are part of the political party we identify with.