Johnson: Additional hurricane aid ‘can wait’ until Congress is back in session

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Sunday said passing additional hurricane aid for states impacted by hurricanes Helene and Milton “can wait” until Congress is back in session after the election.

CBS “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan asked him why he thinks it’s fine to wait until November for Congress to pass more aid for Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton victims.

“Well, it can wait because, remember, the day before Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida and then went up through the states and wound up in Senator Tillis’ state of North Carolina, Congress appropriated 20 billion additional dollars to FEMA so that they would have the necessary resources to address immediate needs,” Johnson said.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) was part of a bipartisan group of senators to sign a letter urging Senate leaders to think about bringing lawmakers back into session this month to enact disaster legislation before the end of the year.

House lawmakers have also urged Johnson to bring the chamber back into session. A group of Democrats sent a letter last week asking him to do so, and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) posted on the social media platform X that, “If Congress goes into a special session we can get it passed immediately. This needs to happen. @SpeakerJohnson call us back.”

The continuing resolution Congress passed to avert a government shutdown last month allowed for the agency to use the fund’s fiscal year 2025 resources faster for disaster response for the duration of the nearly three-month stopgap, allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) access to draw from a roughly $20 billion pot starting Oct. 1. But it notably excluded any additional FEMA funding.

Johnson said that as of Sunday, less than 2 percent of the already passed funding has been distributed. He said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) needs to “do its job” and disperse the funds to the affected communities.

FEMA officials say they have sufficient resources to respond to the pair of hurricanes until Congress returns, but they also indicated nearly half that money is already spent.

The Speaker said the affected states, including Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, need to assess the damage from the storm and calculate their needs before requesting more money from Congress.

“As soon as that is done, Congress will meet and in a bipartisan fashion, we will address those needs, will provide the additional resources, but it would be premature to call everyone back now,” Johnson said.