As Congress enters a crucial stretch to the November elections, a prolonged to-do record of crucial funding objects is piling in its absence.
Congressional leaders have confronted strain from all sides to return early in latest weeks to approve extra catastrophe support within the wake of back-to-back hurricanes. Whereas there hasn’t been any urge for food to drag members off the marketing campaign path, the storms solely add to a jam-packed agenda that awaits lawmakers once they return.
Listed below are among the main objects on that record up to now.
Catastrophe loans
The Small Enterprise Administration’s catastrophe mortgage program has exhausted its funds after weeks of warnings by administration officers.
“Speaker Johnson has promised that this and other disaster programs will be replenished when Congress returns, so Americans should continue to apply for these loans. SBA will continue to process applications and will disburse loans as soon as Congress provides the needed funding,” Biden stated on the time.
Johnson additionally stated on the time that Congress is “tracking this situation closely” and expects to have “an accurate assessment of the actual dollar amount needed” from the Biden administration on the mandatory funding.
Nonetheless, some GOP senators are urgent for extra info on this system’s funds, whereas elevating issues in regards to the company’s dealing with of this system.
The SBA stated this week that it “first raised the need for additional funds” to congressional funding chiefs final 12 months and has since made a number of requests. Officers say they want about $1.6 billion for the company’s program.
FEMA
Congressional management has additionally confronted calls from members on either side of the aisle in latest weeks to return early from recess to move extra funding for the Federal Emergency Administration Company’s (FEMA) catastrophe aid fund.
Congress final month handed a brief stopgap measure to maintain federal funding from lapsing in October and to stop a authorities shutdown.
Negotiators stated then that the deal allowed for the company to make use of the fund’s fiscal 2025 assets sooner for catastrophe response throughout the almost three-month stopgap, letting FEMA draw from a roughly $20 billion pot beginning Oct. 1.
Whereas FEMA officers have stated in latest weeks that it has ample assets to reply to hurricanes Milton and Helene whereas Congress is out of session within the quick time period, additionally they indicated to reporters a big chunk of that cash is already gone.
Republicans and Democrats have launched payments within the aftermath of hurricanes Helene and Milton for additional catastrophe support, together with a $15 billion proposal supplied by Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) and a $20 billion pitch from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and others.
Veterans Affairs
Congress handed an emergency spending invoice earlier than leaving final month that gives billions of {dollars} in funding for the Division of Veterans Affairs (VA), as officers warned that profit funds for veterans have been prone to being disrupted earlier this month absent congressional motion.
Nonetheless, the VA has additionally warned of a possible shortfall in fiscal 12 months 2025 and has requested Congress for roughly $12 billion in extra funding for medical care.
The company has pointed to the PACT Act, a landmark legislation that handed with bipartisan help in 2022, as a key driver behind its finance woes, pointing to will increase in enrollment in VA well being care, appointments and purposes advantages.
However lawmakers have been urgent for extra info on the VA’s administration of its finances and the occasions main as much as its preliminary shortfall.
As senators thought of laws to handle the smaller, extra instant funding menace, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) unsuccessfully pushed for an modification geared toward offsetting the prices of the invoice, whereas citing the nation’s $35 trillion-plus debt.
On the time, he known as the VA shortfall “foreseeable” after Congress expanded advantages years in the past, whereas including, “I think it is the priority and it is [the] responsibility of America to take care of its veterans, but we still have to think about what we’re doing.”
Total funding
Whereas the newest stopgap handed by Congress will hold the federal government open by mid-December, lawmakers are a methods away from ending up their annual funding work.
The stopgap funding invoice runs out on Dec. 20 and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has vowed to interrupt precedent and never jam by one massive omnibus funding measure earlier than the vacations.
The approaching presidential election might play a serious function in what Congress does.
Conservatives bullish of former President Trump’s probabilities of successful again the White Home had been pushing for Congress to punt the following funding deadline into early 2025. Proponents of the technique say it will permit Trump extra enter over authorities funding, whereas additionally reducing the probability of Congress squeezing by one other large, end-of-year omnibus funding package deal.
Nonetheless, many Republicans are pushing for Congress to complete its funding work in December.
Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), prime Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, stated final month that it’s a “mistake” to move a stopgap that “goes beyond December because regardless of who wins the presidential election, we should be presenting them with a clean slate.”
“They should not have the burden of dealing with issues of a fiscal year that began in October.”
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