Hurricane Laura was able to put an end to President Donald Trump’s temporary $ 300 weekly unemployment benefit even faster.
Those benefits were projected to last about a month if each state requests the help, some more help will be provided to the economy as it struggles through the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. But Hurricane Laura could cut as much as a week of that estimate. Add to that the recent damage from other natural disasters, including Iowa’s mid-August derecho and the wildfires raging in California, such as promises made by the administration to provide PPE and other help related to the coronavirus, and emergency relief could begin as soon as mid-September.
“It all comes from one pot,” said Lars Anderson, a former official of the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the Obama administration. “We are just getting to the height of the hurricane season. If these storms are catastrophic, the added financial strain of emergency aid means that money will be spent quickly, and Congress will have to find a way to get those funds back.”
Mr. Trump’s additional $ 300 in weekly unemployment benefits is aimed at helping the 27 million workers who are currently collecting unemployed aid, which typically replaces only a fraction of a worker’s regular income. The $ 300 incentive is less than the $ 600 extra workers received from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, which expired at the end of July.
But unlike the CARES Act’s $ 600 payment, Mr. Trump’s $ 300 aid was approved by executive order and not by Congress. Without Congress’ approval, Mr. Trump was forced to tap FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund to make the payments.
Mr Trump’s executive order says the $ 300 per week unemployment rate will end if the balance in the FEMA disaster fund falls to just $ 25 billion. Congress Democrats have estimated that expenditures will cost about $ 10 billion a week, if each state participates in the program. With about $ 40 billion in the fund left over for the $ 25 billion cut, that translates to four weeks of payments.
Enter Hurricane Laura.
On Wednesday, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards predicted the hurricane would be a “major, powerful storm,” similar in size and path to Hurricane Rita, which inflicted $ 25 billion worth of damage on Texas and Louisiana in 2005.
The FEMA disaster fund is estimated to pay $ 50 billion in total relief for Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, according to the Congressional Research Service. Katrina, by far the largest of the three storms, did about four times the damage to Rita’s belongings.
At the end of July, FEMA had $ 68 billion in its relief fund that had not already been pledged for an earlier disaster recovery effort, according to the fund’s latest monthly report. That was before Iowa requested nearly $ 4 billion in aid from FEMA to deal with this month’s storm damage. FEMA has approved some of that money, but by no means all.
“Modest and inadequate”
On top of hurricanes, there are fires in California. FEMA contributed nearly $ 2 billion to fighting fires in that state in 2017. The number of acres burned this year is close to surpassing all of 2017, with four months to go. FEMA has already said it would help cover the cost of fighting the fires this year, but it has not detailed how much it will spend in total in California.
“Without a doubt, COVID-19 in combination with mission of natural disasters will respond to the pockets of FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund,” said Mr. Trump’s former FEMA manager Brock Long, who ran the bureau from early 2017 to early 2019 and is now executive chairman of Hagerty. Consult.
“However, if necessary, I’m sure all parties will come to the table and provide the agency with the extra resources needed to push the needy through the entire country,” Long added.
But others are not so sure. Evan Hollander, communications director for Democrats in the House apartment committee, told CBS MoneyWatch that while Democrats have never voted against funding for disasters, it was “scandalous” that Mr. Trump would withdraw the FEMA fund on a ” modest and inadequate unemployment arrangements. “
If FEMA is low on funds, other types of relief could be scaled back, according to Barry Scanlon, who was a top FEMA official under Bill Clinton and now president of DCMC’s public safety advisory firm. While the agency has more than enough money to handle the initial response to Hurricane Laura, unfunded projects – such as the ongoing Hurricane Maria rebuilding in Puerto Rico of 2017 – could be cut. Scanlon, which works with state and city governments, said local officials are told not to expect additional funding for coronavirus security measures.
“The FEMA disaster fund will at some point run out of money, and [the Trump Administration] has used FEMA for a non-traditional purpose that the disaster fund was never intended under the law, “Scanlon said. They have created a fund that should be for food and water and housing and construction, mass politics. “
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