President Biden will investigate the situation on Sunday destruction caused on Florida’s Gulf Coast Through Hurricane Milton as he urges Congress to approve additional disaster relief funding.
Biden’s visit to Florida gives him another opportunity to put pressure on the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson to get lawmakers to provide more funding before the Nov. 5 election. Johnson has said the issue will be dealt with after the election.
Mr. Biden left early Sunday morning, with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell among others traveling aboard Air Force One.
Biden expected to announce more than $600 million in aid
“I think Speaker Johnson is going to get the message that he needs to step up, especially for small businesses,” Biden told reporters Friday as he and Harris met with aides to discuss the federal response to Hurricanes Milton and Helene. Biden and Johnson have yet to discuss the issue directly.
In Florida, Mr. Biden will announce $612 million for six Department of Energy projects in areas hit by the hurricanes to improve the resilience 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.
Recent hurricanes and the government’s response have added a new layer to the presidential race
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 Mr. 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.
Mr Biden has said Trump was “not particularly” responsible for the spreading false claims in recent weeks, but that he has the “biggest mouth”.
The head of Homeland Security warns that FEMA has run out of relief funds
The president insists swift 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. 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.
Harris and DeSantis trade accusations about storm responses
Tensions 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.
For his part, Mr. Biden said he hoped to see DeSantis on Sunday, if the governor’s schedule allowed.
“He has been very cooperative,” Mr. Biden said of DeSantis. He added: “We got along really well.”
DeSantis said Saturday he had no details about the president’s visit.
Mr. Biden was expected 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 landed in Florida as a Category 3 storm on Wednesday evening. At least ten people were killed and hundreds more thousands of inhabitants remain without power.
Officials say the toll could have been worse if that wasn’t the case large-scale evacuations. The still fresh ones destruction caused by Helene just two weeks earlier likely prompted many people to flee.
