FEMA doesn't have enough funds to last through hurricane season, DHS Secretary Mayorkas

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is warning that the Federal Emergency Management Agency won't have enough funding to last through the hurricane season.

The agency is now responding to the devastation from Hurricane Helene delivering critical supplies to those devastated by the storm in states including North Carolina, Florida and Georgia.

Mayorkas in making the warning Wednesday did not specify how much more money the agency would request from Congress.

Congress before leaving last week for recess until after the Nov. 5 election passed a stopgap spending measure to keep the government fully operational through next month that included an additional $16 billion for FEMA. 

However, a preliminary assessment of the damage from Helene across six southeastern states conducted by Moody’s Analytics found cleanup and recovery could cost up to $34 billion.

President Biden has suggested Congress might have to return to Capitol Hill to pass additional funding, and 12 senators have made such a request. However, House GOP Speaker Mike Johnson has resisted the idea, arguing, in part, that the federal government still needs to get a proposal together. 

Conservative Republicans have argued that FEMA would have more money available if it didn't spend close to $1 billion to respond to the influx of migrants the Biden administration has released into the U.S. 

In fiscal 2024, FEMA provided $640.9 million for the “Shelter and Services Program" to "enable non-federal entities to off-set allowable costs incurred for services associated with noncitizen migrant arrivals in their communities." 

The Federalist reported that FEMA spent about $364 million on that program in FY2023 "to provide humanitarian services to noncitizen migrants following their release from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)."