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WASHINGTON (AP) — The government’s main disaster aid account is
running woefully short of money as the Obama administration
confronts damages from Hurricane Irene that could run into billions
of dollars.
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With less than $800 million in its disaster aid coffers, the
Federal Emergency Management Agency has been forced to freeze
rebuilding projects from disasters dating to Hurricane Katrina to
conserve money for emergency needs in the wake of Irene. Lawmakers
from states ravaged by tornadoes this spring, like Missouri and
Alabama, are especially furious.
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The shortfalls in FEMA’s disaster aid account have been obvious to
lawmakers on Capitol Hill for months – and privately acknowledged
to them by FEMA – but the White House has opted against asking for
more money, riling many lawmakers.
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“Despite the fact that the need … is well known,” Reps. Robert
Aderholt, R-Ala., and David Price, D-N.C., wrote the administration
last month, “it unfortunately appears that no action is being taken
by the administration.” The lawmakers chair the panel responsible
for FEMA’s budget.
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FEMA now admits the disaster aid shortfall could approach $5
billion for the upcoming budget year, and that’s before accounting
for Irene.
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As a result, funds to help states and local governments rebuild
from this year’s tornadoes, as well as past disasters like
hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the massive Tennessee floods of
last spring, have been frozen. Instead, FEMA is only paying for the
“immediate needs” of disaster-stricken communities, which include
debris removal, food, water and emergency shelter.
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“Going into September being the peak part of hurricane season, and
with Irene, we didn’t want to get to the point where we would not
have the funds to continue to support the previous impacted
survivors as well as respond to the next disaster,” FEMA
Administrator Craig Fugate told reporters at the White House on
Monday.
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Earlier this year, the administration requested $1.8 billion for
FEMA’s disaster relief fund, despite pent-up demands for much more.
Appropriations for last year totaled four times that
amount.
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FEMA estimates that the request still left the disaster fund short
by $2 billion to $4.8 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. Those
are figures the agency provided to Congress this spring – before
Irene or the tornadoes that destroyed huge swaths of Joplin, Mo.,
or beat up the South.
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With recovery operations from Irene still in the early stages, FEMA
spokesman Rachel Racusen said it is too early to know whether that
projected shortfall has increased or by how much.
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“It’s just too soon to know what any uninsured losses will be,”
Racusen said.
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“Even though the president himself said that we are going to do
everything we can to help these communities rebuild, the rhetoric
has not matched reality, and the Disaster Relief Fund is running
out of money,” Aderholt said.
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The likely vehicle for replenishing the disaster account is the
homeland security spending bill for the budget year beginning Oct.
1. The House passed the measure in early June, but the Senate has
yet to act.
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Meanwhile, Republicans controlling the House and the
Democratic-controlled Senate may be headed toward a battle over
whether to cut spending elsewhere in the budget to pay for tornado
and hurricane aid.
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A top leader in the tea-party-driven House says that chamber will
find those offsetting spending cuts. The Senate, however, is likely
to take advantage of a little-noticed provision in the recently
passed debt limit and budget deal that permits Congress to pass
several billion dollars in additional FEMA disaster aid without
budget cuts elsewhere.
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“We will find the money if there is a need for additional money,”
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., told Fox News on Monday.
“But those monies are not unlimited, and we have said we have to
offset that.”
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A House-Senate collision over disaster aid would risk further
delays in replenishing dangerously low FEMA disaster
accounts.
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“It’s too early to tell what the damage assessment will be and what
next steps may need to be taken,” said Meg Reilly, a spokeswoman
for the White House budget office.
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It’s hardly the first time that longer-term rebuilding projects
like schools and sewer systems have been frozen out to make sure
there’s money to provide disaster victims with immediate help with
food, water and shelter. But it’s frustrating to communities like
Nashville, Tenn., which is rebuilding from last year’s historic
floods.
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The Obama White House is just the latest administration to lowball
disaster relief requests. Over the past two decades, Congress has
approved $130 billion for FEMA’s disaster account. But the bulk of
that money, $110 billion, has been provided as emergency funding in
addition to the annual budget.
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