WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Sunday will survey the devastation wrought by Hurricane Milton on Florida’s Gulf Coast as he urges Congress to approve additional disaster relief funding. Vice President Kamala Harris will spend a second day in North Carolina, hit hard by Hurricane Helene, to attend a black church and hold a campaign rally.
Biden’s visit to Florida gives him another opportunity to press Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson for lawmakers to provide more funding before the Nov. 5 election. Johnson has said the issue will be dealt with after the election.
“I think Speaker Johnson will get the message that he has to go the extra mile, especially for small businesses,” Biden told reporters as he and Harris met with aides on Friday to discuss the federal response to Hurricanes Milton and Helene . Biden and Johnson have yet to discuss the issue directly.
In Florida, Biden would announce $612 million for six Department of Energy projects in areas hit by the hurricanes to improve the resiliency of the region’s power grid, the White House said. The funding includes $94 million for two projects in Florida: $47 million for Gainesville Regional Utilities and $47 million for Switched Source to partner with Florida Power and Light.
Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, visited Raleigh on Saturday to meet with Black elected and religious leaders and help volunteers package personal care items for delivery to Helene’s victims in the western part of the state.
The vice president spent Sunday in Greenville, with plans to speak at a church service as part of her “Souls to the Polls” campaign to help black churchgoers before Election Day. She would also hold a rally to discuss her economic plans and highlight the start of early voting in the state on Thursday, her campaign said.
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will campaign in the competitive states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina in the coming week, according to a Harris campaign official who requested anonymity to share details that are not yet public made.
With less than four weeks to go until Election Day, the hurricanes have added a new dimension to the closely contested presidential race.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said the Biden administration’s storm response was lacking, especially in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. And Biden and Harris have hammered Trump for promoting falsehoods about the federal response.
Trump made a series of false claims after Helene struck in late September, including the false claim that the federal government is deliberately withholding aid from Republican disaster victims. He also falsely claimed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had run out of money because it had all gone illegally to immigrant programs in the country.
Biden said Trump was “not particularly” responsible for the spread of false claims in recent weeks, but that he has the “biggest mouth.”
The president is pushing for quick action from Congress to ensure the Small Business Administration and FEMA have the money they need to weather the hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30 in the Atlantic Ocean. He said Friday that Milton alone had caused an estimated $50 billion in damage.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said last week that FEMA will be able to meet the “immediate needs” caused by the two storms. But he warned in the aftermath of Helene that the agency does not have enough funding to weather the hurricane season.
But Johnson has pushed back, saying the agencies have enough money for now and that lawmakers will tackle the funding issue in the post-election lame-duck session.
Tensions are also seeping in the background between Harris and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. As Helene barreled toward Florida last week, the Democratic vice president and Republican governor traded accusations that the other was trying to politicize the federal storm response.
Harris’ office suggested last week that DeSantis was dodging her calls. DeSantis responded that he did not know she had called and grumbled that she had not been involved in the federal government’s response before becoming the Democratic presidential nominee.
Biden, for his part, said he hoped to see DeSantis on Sunday, if the governor’s schedule allowed.
“He has been very cooperative,” Biden said of DeSantis. He added: “We got on really well.”
DeSantis said Saturday he had no details about the president’s visit.
Biden was scheduled to survey the damage during an air tour between Tampa and St. Pete Beach, where he will be briefed on the storm by federal, state and local officials. He will also meet with residents and first responders.
Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida on Wednesday evening as a Category 3 storm. At least ten people died and hundreds of thousands of residents are still without power.
Officials say the toll could have been worse had there not been widespread evacuations. The still-fresh devastation wrought by Helene just two weeks earlier likely prompted many people to flee.
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Bo reported from Raleigh, North Carolina.
