The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has not yet received the local government damage estimates needed to determine how much disaster-relief funding the agency will need to cover Hurricane Irene’s costs. But almost everyone expects the number to top the $792 million that FEMA currently has in its disaster-relief fund. Capitol Hill is already fighting over how much the fund should get and how it should be paid for.
Since 1990, $110 billion of the $130 billion in disaster-relief funding approved by Congress has been done through supplemental emergency spending. Republicans wanted to change that this year. So when President Obama requested $1.8 billion for disaster relief in his 2012 budget, Republicans passed a bill allocating $3.65 billion in disaster spending, $1 billion of which would help cover fiscal 2011 costs. Budgeting for additional disaster relief spending now would avoid off-budget deficit-spending later.
