Congressional Dysfunction Has Helene Relief Efforts in Limbo

“Sometimes Congress is very quick to respond to a disaster, sometimes they’re not, and you don’t know what else is going on in the political cycle that will affect the decision-making,” said Andy Winkler, leader of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Task Force on Disaster Response Reform. “Any kind of delay or uncertainty in what the resources are that are available can create delays in the recovery.”

FEMA has been “pushed to its limits” since 2017, which saw massive damage wrought by Hurricanes Maria, Harvey, and Irma, Winkler said. It continues to run on fumes: In August, FEMA announced it was shifting into “immediate needs funding” mode, meaning that it will prioritize emergency lifesaving work over longer-term recovery projects. Meanwhile, several states are waiting on recovery assistance for disasters that happened earlier this year—or even last year, such as the devastating fires in Maui and the collapse of a bridge in Baltimore. Other federal disaster recovery programs that fall outside of FEMA’s purview involving long-term recovery, such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s long-term block grant program known as CDBG-DR, have also not received new funding this year.

Winkler noted that the stress on FEMA may also be attributable to shifting perceptions of what the agency’s role should be whenever the need for post-disaster relief and recovery arises, highlighting the recent increase in the number of federal disaster declarations, which kick off the emergency funding process. “The mission is expanding, and at the same time you’re seeing really difficult workforce shortages at FEMA. And so we’re asking them to do more, we expect more, but at the same time, we’re not necessarily giving them the tools and the resources to be able to do that well,” said Winkler.