President Joe Biden has sent a letter out to congressional lawmakers, asking for their assistance in passing more Hurricane Helene relief funding.
Biden also informed the lawmakers on Friday that the Small Business Administration will run out of money “in a matter of weeks” before Congress can intervene.
“[The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Defense are] performing critical life-saving and life-sustaining missions and will continue to do so within present funding levels,” the president wrote.
“As with other catastrophic disasters, it will take some time to assess the full requirements for response and recovery efforts, and I fully expect that the Congress will do its part to provide the funding needed,” he added.
The SBA’s funding needs are far more urgent, Biden suggested.
“I requested more funding for SBA multiple times over the past several months, and most recently, my Administration underscored that request as you prepared a continuing resolution to fund the Government,” he said. “Now the need is even more urgent. Small businesses and individuals in affected areas depend on disaster loans as a critical lifeline during difficult times.”
The SBA’s disaster relief loan program grants up to $2 million to businesses and $500,000 to homeowners. The program is receiving more than 3,000 applications per day for damage related to Hurricane Helene, and it requires $1.6 billion to accommodate requests.
Ultimately, Biden said, FEMA will require more funding in order to avoid a lack of funds for “longer-term recovery activities.”
“The Congress should provide FEMA additional resources to avoid forcing that kind of unnecessary trade-off and to give the communities we serve the certainty of knowing that help will be ongoing, both for the short- and long-term,” he wrote.
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Biden has told reporters that additional funding “can’t wait … people need help now.”
Hurricane Helene has devastated a number of states, namely North Carolina, where flooding has paralyzed residents to the point that they still don’t have cell service in certain areas in order to call for assistance. At least 220 people have died across the southeastern U.S. as a result of the storm.