DISASTER SUPP ODDS The need for a disaster aid package is a lone source of bipartisan, bicameral agreement on government funding right now. But don’t expect action until after August recess — and that could be a problem. FEMA just detailed its latest accounting of the disaster aid piggy bank, predicting that the Biden administration will burn through almost all of the cash in the coming weeks. The balance in the Disaster Relief Fund: about $9 billion. The expected shortfall: $6 billion before the new fiscal year starts in October. The Department of Transportation also tells us there’s about $900 million left in the emergency highway fund that’s been covering costs from the March collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. On both sides of the Capitol, the support for an emergency aid package is there, following President Joe Biden’s request late last month for $4 billion in emergency cash. So far, the urgency — and bandwidth — is not. Blame the regular funding bills and a torrent of political surprises this summer. “We have a few pending issues out there, not the least of which is the Key Bridge, that we will eventually have to deal with,” said Arkansas Rep. Steve Womack, the Republican appropriator in charge of transportation funding in the House. “It will be a full-throated discussion across the breadth and width of Congress,” Womack said, noting the debate over how much the federal government should cover in rebuilding the Baltimore bridge. “I'm also of the belief that the time to deal with it will be sooner than later, because it's not going to become less expensive if we stretch this thing out over time.” It’s been two and a half weeks since Biden sent his emergency request to fill the disaster fund, emergency highway account and the HUD program that helps communities rebuild after disasters. Top lawmakers are now considering how to turn that request into a supplemental spending package. A final product is not expected to move until September at earliest, either solo ahead of the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline, or attached to the stopgap funding patch everyone in Congress has accepted as an election-year necessity. During the Senate’s first fiscal 2025 markup last week, Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said appropriators are “committed” to getting a supplemental done. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who oversees the transportation funding measure, stressed the urgent and growing need across the country, which will only worsen with the progression of the “above normal” hurricane season federal weather forecasters have predicted. “Maui, Maryland, Florida, Texas, New Mexico — many other states are still awaiting disaster aid,” he said during the markup. “This is something we’ve always done on a bipartisan basis both as a committee, and as a Congress and as a country. And we’ve got to get this done.” In a subsequent interview, Schatz told us that a supplemental “cannot wait.” “I think, unfortunately, because of the way severe weather proceeds through any calendar year, the coalition for a disaster supplemental will continue to grow,” he said. “We will enact it. When? I don’t know.” — Jennifer Scholtes and Caitlin Emma, with an assist from Chris Marquette GOOD EVENING! Welcome to Inside Congress, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Tuesday, July 16, where we’re desperate for the return of 80-degree temperatures later this week. One way to stay cool? Drinking from the firehose that has become this political news cycle.
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