An aerial view of gas being burned off near overturned tank cars amid flood damage wrought by Hurricane Helene along the Swannanoa River on October 4, 2024 in Asheville, North Carolina. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Lawmakers in North Carolina have laid out $877 million in state aid for Hurricane Helene recovery in the mountains — an effort many are hoping will be bolstered by help from Capitol Hill.
“This will be a major amount of the pressure that we have got to put on the U.S. Congress,” Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, said on the floor of the state Senate last week. “To make sure that we can have the resources necessary to allow western North Carolina to rebuild itself.”
But the region is unlikely to see any new spending from Washington until after the election, with congressional leaders declining to call members back before their regularly scheduled session in mid-November.
“To be clear: Congress will act again upon its return in November to address funding needs and ensure those impacted receive the necessary resources,” a spokesperson for House Speaker Mike Johnson told Politico on Oct. 10.
In the weeks since, members of North Carolina’s delegation and other states hit hard by Helene and Hurricane Milton have continued to urge for a quicker response.
U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina wrote in an op-ed last week that Congress must “step up and be proactive — not reactive — with long-term disaster recovery assistance.”
Small business loan program, FEMA funding are top concerns
At issue are two buckets of federal money: the Small Business Administration’s disaster loan fund and FEMA’s disaster relief fund.
The SBA’s program provides low-interest loans to homeowners and businesses for repairs and renovations after natural disasters. But the agency ran out of money for loans earlier this month — cutting off a vital means for those in the mountains and other regions to fund repairs.
Tillis and his North Carolina Republican colleague, U.S. Sen. Ted Budd, announced Tuesday that they were cosponsoring a bill to replenish the program and will seek to pass it “when Congress returns to session.”
“This recovery will take many years, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to cut through the delays and provide WNC with the resources they need as quickly as possible,” Budd said in a statement.
While FEMA remains funded for the moment, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has said the agency doesn’t have enough money to make it through the remainder of the hurricane season. A short-term federal spending bill passed in September sent $20 billion to the disaster fund.
State lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed skepticism they would see help from Capitol Hill before mid-November.
“There’s no indication that Congress will return back to allocate federal dollars, despite Sen. Thom Tillis’ effort,” said Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, D-Wake, as he asked his colleagues to invest further in state aid.
House Speaker Tim Moore — who in January will likely be sworn into the U.S. House as he runs in a deep-red district — said lawmakers need to look closely at whether previously allocated money will come up short. And he pledged to work with North Carolina’s delegation on the issue moving forward.
“I think everyone’s going to be rowing in the same direction, and figure out where we need to be,” Moore said. “We’ve been staying in regular contact with them to make sure that we’re leveraging all of the federal assets we can.”
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