Kaycen Hedges tries to clear mud from Third Street in Barre on July 11, 2024, after overnight flooding. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
Congress late Wednesday passed a stopgap spending bill to keep the federal government open until late December but declined to inject more funding into the cash-strapped Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Instead, according to the office of U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., the emergency response agency has been permitted to begin spending out of its Fiscal Year 2025 budget — essentially paying its bills with a credit card.
FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund — which covers the agency’s emergency responses, plus direct financial support to natural disaster survivors — ran dry weeks ago. On a FEMA webpage that hosts the monthly reports of the fund’s status, a bright red warning reads, “As of Aug. 7, 2024, Immediate Needs Funding is in effect.”
That means that the agency has been limited in the aid it can dole out in the wake of recent natural disasters around the country — including waves of severe flooding in Vermont this summer. While the agency has still been able to distribute individual assistance and housing aid for those hit by the floods, it hasn’t been able to reimburse state and local governments for cleanup and repair work for weeks.
Once Congress’ continuing resolution takes effect on Oct. 1, FEMA can begin chipping away at what E&E News reports to be an $8 billion backlog in reimbursements — out of its Fiscal Year 2025 budget.
Welch has advocated for increased natural disaster response appropriations to aid Vermont and other states rebuilding from natural disasters. He issued a statement Wednesday night lambasting the handling of disaster relief in the latest spending plan, saying the continuing resolution “will not meet the long-term needs of Vermont, or any state recovering from a disaster” and “risks another depletion of FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund.”
“Spending down next year’s funds early, especially as we deal with more catastrophic weather, threatens to create a perfect storm by our next funding deadline,” Welch said.
Still, he and his colleagues from the Vermont delegation — U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt. — voted ‘yes’ on the resolution to fund the federal government through Dec. 20, averting a government shutdown for the time being. At that point, lawmakers will be under pressure to pass a full budget for the remainder of the fiscal year.
In a statement provided to VTDigger on Thursday, Balint said, “Keeping the government open is one of Congress’s most basic responsibilities.”
“But House Republicans have failed to come to the table to send a long-term government funding bill to the President’s desk,” she continued. “They are preventing urgently needed disaster recovery funding from getting to Vermont and other states recovering from climate disasters.”
Welch, too, pledged to continue pushing for increased natural disaster funding when Congress returns to the negotiating table.
“It is our responsibility to fund the government and avoid a shutdown, so tonight I voted for this bill — despite its flaws,” he said on Wednesday night, shortly after casting his vote. “But I will keep working across the aisle and across the Capitol to secure the disaster recovery funding Vermont and every state devastated by natural disasters needs.”
But before then, members of Congress will take a month-long recess to campaign in their home districts through October.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont delegation backs short-term spending deal but criticizes lack of additional disaster aid.