The White House on Friday requested $44 billion in new disaster relief funding from Congress for hurricane-ravaged communities in Texas, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, angering several lawmakers who said the amount falls short of what their states need.
“Federal agencies and the affected states have been working diligently to collect the information needed and have been able to generate these cost estimates for areas impacted by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma,” Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney wrote in a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan.
“Because Hurricane Maria occurred more recently, damage assessments are ongoing, including in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands,” Mulvaney added.
Mulvaney also suggested $59 billion in proposed offsets, mostly through cuts to non-defense spending, in order to keep federal spending below statutory caps.
But Mulvaney’s request falls far short of what states and territories have sought. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott submitted a request to the Trump administration last month, asking for $61 billion to help cover the costs of rebuilding homes and repairing infrastructure that had been damaged by massive flooding when Harvey hit Houston.
Florida’s congressional delegation asked for $27 billion and Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello requested $94 billion, including $18 billion to repair the island’s power grid.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters on Friday that his office was briefed on the president’s request ahead of time and found it to be “wholly inadequate.”
Congress approved $36.5 billion last month in aid for areas that were impacted by Hurricanes Irma, Maria and Harvey. The package included $576 million for Northern California, where hundreds of acres were destroyed by wildfires in late October.
Lawmakers also passed a stopgap spending bill in early September to fund the government through December and provide $7.9 billion in relief for Harvey victims.
Mulvaney recommended Friday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Small Business Administration administer $25 billion of the requested disaster relief funds and that $12 billion go toward a federal block grant program that deals with flood mitigation projects.
He also urged Congress to pass a two-year extension of existing non-defense spending caps “in order to offset increases to the new emergency spending we are requesting.”
