Lawmakers are putting pressure on congressional leaders to enact more funds to help states recover from Hurricane Helene after the powerful storm tore through much of the Southeast. 

What You Need To Know

  • In a letter dated Tuesday, all 12 senators from the states hit the hardest by Helene called on Senate leaders to act to address the “unmet needs” and “scope and scale of destruction” impacting their constituents
  • Such action, the bipartisan group of senators noted, may require lawmakers to return to Washington from their recess, which is scheduled to stretch past the election into November, to make sure they have enough time to pass legislation before the end of the year
  • In a separate letter, a bipartisan group of nearly three dozen members of Congress representing storm-stricken states pressed leaders to ensure agriculture producers in particular are receiving assistance they need to recover
  • President Joe Biden on Monday told reporters that we expected to have to ask Congress to approve additional funds to respond to the devastation and may have to ask lawmakers to return from their break to do so

In a letter dated Tuesday, 12 senators from the states hit the hardest by the storm – Democrats and Republicans alike representing North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia – called on Senate leaders to act to address the “unmet needs” and “scope and scale of destruction” impacting their constituents. 

Such action, the senators noted, may require lawmakers to return to Washington from their recess, which is scheduled to stretch past the election into November, to make sure they have enough time to pass legislation before the end of the year. 

“Even preliminary damage assessments indicate that, at a minimum, the total damage and economic loss will be in the tens of billions of dollars,” the letter reads. “Although the true level of devastation is still unfolding, it is clear that Congress must act to meet the unmet needs in our states and address the scope and scale of destruction experienced by our constituents.”

The letter was sent to the Democratic and Republican leaders in the Senate and on the upper chamber’s appropriation committee. The bipartisan group is comprised of North Carolina’s Republican Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd; South Carolina’s GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott; Georgia’s Democratic Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff; Florida’s Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott; Tennessee’s Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty; and Virginia’s Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.

Ossoff also teamed up with Georgia Republican Rep. Austin Scott to lead a bipartisan group of nearly three dozen members of Congress representing storm-stricken states in sending a separate letter pressing leaders to ensure agriculture producers in particular are receiving assistance they need to recover. 

“As preliminary disaster assessments come in, we have already seen that the high winds and rainfall of the storm have caused our states’ agricultural sectors to suffer catastrophic losses,” the lawmakers wrote. 

The letter – which was sent to the Republican and Democratic leaders in both chambers of Congress – urges leaders to work with the Biden administration to guarantee disaster relief resources are available to the nation’s growers. 

“To prevent deep and lasting economic damage to the agricultural industry in the southeastern United States, it is imperative that Congress make appropriations as soon as possible upon the completion of damage assessments to fully fund unmet agricultural disaster relief needs in our states and across the nation,” the letter reads. 

Lawmakers left Washington last week after passing a short-term funding patch to avert a government shutdown just before the Sept. 30 deadline. The funding patch pushed the new deadline to work out a budget for the full fiscal year to mid-December and kept funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief pot at current levels, not allocating any additional funds. 

In the following days, Hurricane Helene would make landfall in Florida as a category 4 hurricane and sweep through the Southeastern part of the country. As of Wednesday, the death toll topped 175 people with hundreds still missing. Many in impacted states still lack power, running water and cellphone service. 

Presidenr Joe Biden on Monday told reporters that we expected to have to ask Congress to approve additional funds to respond to the devastation and may have to ask lawmakers to return from their break to do so. 

“That is something I may have to request, but no decision has been made yet,” he said. 

Speaking at the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., appeared to insinuate that the funding in the short-term funding patch allocated enough funds for FEMA to respond to the storm at the moment. 

“Congress has previously provided FEMA with the funds it needs to respond so we will make sure that those resources are appropriately allocated,” Johnson said when speaking about the hurricane.