1 of 2 | Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on disaster funding needs Wednesday his agency needs $8.1 billion in additional disaster relief funding. It's part of a nearly $100 billion disaster relief funding request across several agencies from the Biden administration. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI |
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Nov. 20 (UPI) -- FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg were among those who testified Wednesday before the Senate Appropriations committee as the Biden administration seeks $100 billion in disaster relief funding.
Criswell told the committee, "FEMA did receive $20.2 billion in the continuing resolution, yet the DFR has been depleted to less than $5 billion as of today due to rising operational needs. The shortfall underscores an urgent reality. FEMA needs sufficient funding to handle the scale and intensity of today's disasters."
She said that is particularly true as FEMA faces the aftermath of not only Hurricanes Helene and Milton but also the Maui wildfires and other emergencies.
She said in just one month FEMA saw 2.4 million households register for assistance, breaking records set during previous disasters.
Criswell urged the senators to fully fund all agency requests for disaster relief.
Buttigieg's agency is requesting $8 billion in additional disaster relief funding. He told the committee that money would be used to clear a backlog of existing relief expenditures but does not address future disaster funding needs.
"So the figure was calculated on the known backlog, if we contemplated those costs that we estimate are already eligible. The $8.1 billion would cover all of that," Buttigieg said during his testimony. "It does not speak to future disasters which, in principle, would be covered through the regular appropriations into this account."
He said $4.4 billion is for cost estimates for hurricanes Helene and Milton. Another $1.69 billion is for replacement of Baltimore's Francis Scot Key bridge. That does not include $350 million of the cost recovered via insurance.
The remaining $2.3 billion, Buttigieg said, covers disasters in dozens of states.
HUD Deputy Secretary Adrianne Todman told the senate committee that the $12 billion requested by her agency is critical to rebuild homes destroyed and damaged in disasters.
"Without the $12 billion that we have requested through the president, simply said, the homes of thousands upon thousands of Americans will never be rebuilt. And their communities will have a housing shortage the likes that they have never seen before," Todman told the committee during her testimony.
