The Federal Emergency Management Agency is relying on its Disaster Relief Fund to keep aid flowing during the government shutdown. But already delayed payments and a depleted fund could lead to complications, lawmakers said.
North Carolina is at the center of this issue; hundreds of thousands applied for assistance after Hurricane Helene brought devastating floods to the state last year.
“The funding that people need to not only operate their businesses but their homes, to rebuild those kinds of things, all of that will more than likely be delayed,” Democratic Rep. Alma Adams told reporters Wednesday.
The state requested federal funding to cover 48% of the damage wrought by last year’s hurricane, but has only received 9% as of last month, according to the Governor’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina.
Republican Sen. Ted Budd said Tuesday that a shutdown’s impact on hurricane recovery was among his biggest areas of focus, in addition to how the lapse in funding would hit the state’s farmers.
“Had DHS been on time with the FEMA payments, there wouldn’t be a challenge,” Budd told NOTUS.
North Carolina officials have repeatedly raised concerns about delayed funds, calling out the Trump administration’s management of FEMA. Over the summer, Gov. Josh Stein wrote a letter to the Department of Homeland Security asking for FEMA to release more than $100 million in funds that had already been approved.
FEMA employees have previously told NOTUS that a new approval process requiring Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to sign off on any projects costing more than $100,000 has slowed down the assistance process.
It’s not just delays that are concerning lawmakers. A long shutdown could deplete FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund. The fund had roughly more than $10 billion in it on Aug. 31.
Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday that FEMA “won’t be funded” during a shutdown.
A spokesperson for FEMA said essential activities will continue during the shutdown.
“In North Carolina and throughout the country FEMA remains fully prepared and capable of responding to natural disasters, even amidst the current government shutdown,” the spokesperson said on Thursday. “During this lapse in funding, FEMA will continue to conduct essential activities deemed necessary for the safety of human life or protection of property, such as payments to disaster survivors, debris removal, and emergency protective measures.”
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This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS and The Assembly.
This article has been updated with a comment from FEMA.