

Congress is scheduled to return on November 12, 2024. Major activities expected during the lame duck session include: completing the FY25 appropriations process (an omnibus or minibus bills or a second continuing resolution (CR) extending funding through late March of 2025); extension of the expiring Farm bill; the National Defense Authorization bill; a disaster supplemental for FEMA, SBA, emergency highways, wildfires, and housing to deal with the costs of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and earlier disasters such as the Maui fires and the Baltimore bridge; Ukraine aid; and elections of the House and Senate party leadership elections.
The most time-sensitive item will be disaster assistance. In October 2023 and in June 2024, President Biden requested over $27.5 billion for FEMA, SBA, emergency highways, farm aid, community housing, and other programs. Congress never acted on those requests. Those estimates did not include the impacts of Hurricanes Helene and Milton. As of Oct. 16, the Biden Administration had already approved more than $1.8 billion in assistance for hurricane recovery efforts.
The FY25 CR that President Biden signed on September 26, 2024 included $20.3 billion for the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund but no other disaster assistance. FEMA provides food, fuel, temporary housing, and other disaster response efforts. They also will pay over
$40,000 for individual assistance to help disaster victims recover by rebuilding. FEMA used $8.7 billion of the $20.3 billion to pay for disaster recovery projects from previous disasters that were put on hold in August in order to meet more “Immediate Needs,” FEMA believes that the remaining $11.6 billion will be sufficient until Congress returns on November 12.
The SBA Disaster Loan program ran out of money on October 14. The SBA loan program provides low interest loans to rebuild for as much as $500,000 for home owners, $100,000 for renters, and $2 million for small businesses. On October 4, 2024, the President requested $1.6 billion for the SBA shortfall. As of October 15, there are already 12,000 applicants from Hurricane Milton.
The only way that Congress could approve that funding without asking all Members to return to Washington would be for the House and Senate to pass a bill by unanimous consent. There is precedent for doing so (one week after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 Congress passed a $10.5 billion emergency supplemental for the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund and to repair damages to DOD facilities).
I think Congress should be coming back and moving on the emergency needs immediately…and they are gonna have to come back after the election as well. There is going to be a long haul for total rebuilding.
President Biden,
October 10
President Biden called on Congress to, “step up” and provide more funds. Despite calls from several members from impacted States to bring Congress back before November 12, Speaker Johnson (R-LA) stated on October 13 that Congress would not do so based on his understanding that FEMA has sufficient funds to make it to November 12 and that SBA can continue to take applications even if they have run out of money. He said, “it would be premature to call Congress back now, because these storms are so large in their scope and magnitude, it’s going to take a little time to make those calculations.”
In addition to the traditional FEMA and SBA disaster programs, the Administration has expanded assistance by increasing the Federal- State FEMA match rate from 75-25 to 100% Federal, the IRS has waived certain tax payments for disaster victims until May of 2025, HUD has allowed FHA to delay foreclosures and mortgage payments for ninety days, HHS has provided emergency medical care, and DOD and the Coast Guard have provided search and rescue assets.
Regardless of when Congress returns, the Administration will send a more comprehensive request to Congress. It will need to be determined whether the National Flood Insurance Program has sufficient balances (currently $5 billion in cash balances and $10 billion in borrowing authority) to pay for claims, to determine what the impact of the hurricanes are on the farm sector for crop losses, to determine whether Federal and military facilities need repairs, whether schools need assistance, National Guard costs, and whether FEMA and SBA have the staffing and systems to meet demand.
The Administration is also expected to press for a significant increase in funding for HUD’s Community Development Block Grant – Disaster program, which can be used to improve power, water, and sewer infrastructure after a disaster. The FEMA Disaster Relief Fund can only be used to restore infrastructure to pre-disaster conditions. The President promised such improvements during a recent trip to Florida.
Needless to say, Congress will have a lot of spending decisions on its plate when it returns.