The president said a Small Business Administration program needed to help business owners recover from Hurricane Helene was set to run out of money in weeks, before Congress reconvenes.
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President Biden touring storm damage in Keaton Beach, Fla., on Thursday. He did not call on Congress to return to Washington immediately or request a specific amount in new funding.
President Biden urged members of Congress on Friday to provide emergency funding for the Small Business Administration, saying the agency is critically low on money needed to help people in communities devastated by Hurricane Helene.
In a late-night letter addressed to the leadership of Congress, Mr. Biden wrote that the S.B.A.’s disaster relief program, which supports small-business owners in recovering from the storm, will run out of money in weeks, before Congress is set to reconvene.
“The Congress must act to restore this funding,” he wrote.
The president’s letter comes just days after Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, said he saw no need for Congress to return from its recess, which will continue through at least Election Day in early November.
“We wouldn’t even conceivably have the request ready before we get back in November,” Mr. Johnson said in an interview on Wednesday. “There’s no necessity for Congress to come back.”
Mr. Johnson and other Republicans have argued that the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other parts of the government have enough money in the short term. They have also said it would take weeks to assess the longer-term needs of those in the path of the hurricane, which can be addressed after the election.
Mr. Biden challenged that assertion in the letter Friday night. He warned that although FEMA, for example, has “the resources needed for the immediate emergency response phase,” the agency “would be required to forgo longer-term recovery activities in favor of meeting urgent needs” without more funding soon.
He did not request a specific amount of money from Congress, and he did not explicitly call on members of the House and Senate to return immediately.
But the president said it would be Congress’s fault if the programs needed to help hurricane victims could not do so in the weeks ahead.
“It is critical that Congress ensures that no critical disaster programs, such as the S.B.A. disaster loan program, run out of funding during the congressional recess period,” he wrote.
The Biden administration had already been pressing Congress for additional disaster relief funds. Last summer, the president requested money after devastating fires in Maui and tornadoes in Mississippi, Iowa and Oklahoma. The administration also asked for federal funds to help rebuild the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
Congress did not act on those requests, instead approving a short-term spending bill that extended current levels of funding until December, after the election. In the letter, Mr. Biden made it clear that he intended to press for those additional requests as well once Congress returns to Washington.
“I urge you to assist those impacted by this hurricane and every other disaster since the Congress last passed a comprehensive disaster package in 2022,” he wrote. “We must stand with these communities on their long road to recovery.”
Michael D. Shear is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Biden and his administration. He has reported on politics for more than 30 years. More about Michael D. Shear
See more on: Small Business Administration, U.S. Politics, Federal Emergency Management Agency, President Joe Biden, U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives
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Source: nytimes.com
