Fears of an immediate cash crunch at the Federal Emergency Management Agency that could necessitate congressional action before the November elections receded on Tuesday after President Joe Biden raised that prospect a day earlier.
Even so, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned of a long and extensive road ahead for Hurricane Helene recovery efforts because of what he called the “historic magnitude” of the storm in North Carolina and other southeastern states.
“The rebuilding is something that is not for today but is something that is going to be extraordinarily costly and is going to be a multiyear enterprise,” Mayorkas said at a White House briefing Tuesday.
For now, it doesn’t look like lawmakers will need to interrupt their campaigning to head back to Washington to deal with the problem, as Biden suggested Monday.
FEMA spokesperson Daniel Llargués told reporters Tuesday that the agency is in a “good position” at the moment to respond to Helene, noting that it lifted “immediate needs funding” status, which diverts available funds to only the highest-priority activities. The agency received nearly $20.3 billion on Tuesday, the first day of fiscal 2025, under the stopgap funding package Biden signed last week.
“We don’t want in any way, shape or form for anybody to think that FEMA is not well-positioned and ready to support our state partners but, most importantly, individuals that were impacted in Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina,” Llar
