WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — – Southeastern senators are teaming up to push disaster relief funding through Congress. They say they represent communities that are still grappling with the impacts of Hurricanes Helene and Milton and need more federal help.
The effort to approve more funding for federal recovery work is bringing together Republicans like Senator Thom Tillis and Senator Ted Budd and Democrats like Senator Jon Ossoff and Senator Tim Kaine.
Regions of North Carolina were hit especially hard by the storm and their leaders argue they urgently need assistance.
“It’s not over. We’re not on to the next storm. We’re going to be recovering in Western North Carolina for years,” Tillis said.
“The people of Western North Carolina, they need help, they need it now. We can’t have any more delays,” Budd said.
Parts of Florida, Georgia, Virginia and Tennessee also sustained damage from the storm. Senator Ossoff says it’s vital to address all of the effected communities.
“The bottom line is that when we’re hit like this by a storm, we have to invest in rebuilding America,” Ossoff said.
The White House is asking for $98 billion dollars for this disaster relief. While large funding packages are usually divisive on Capitol Hill, the senators hope the fact that this issue is bipartisan will help get the funding across the finish line.
“It’s not about party, it’s about taking care of one of the core functions of government, which is taking care of people in a time of need and disaster,” Budd said.
The money would go towards wide ranging recovery goals. In Virginia, Senator Kaine says national parks and forests need help.
“In the Appalachian part of Virginia there was huge damage to public lands,” Kaine said. “If you help folks with homes and businesses, which we need to, but you don’t do some work on the public lands, the national parks and the national forests, then you really hit hard the tourism industry that a lot of the Southwestern Virginia communities rely on.”
In Georgia, Senator Ossoff especially wants aid for the agriculture industry.
“Supporting our family farms who were crushed by this hurricane. We’ve got pecan growers in Georgia who lost entire groves,” Ossoff said.
In North Carolina many of the regions that were damaged by the storm aren’t used to dealing with hurricanes. Senator Tillis says they may need to get creative with allocating relief funding for those areas.
“We’ve got to do things differently. It’s a storm that we don’t have a playbook to work from,” Tillis said. “I think we should go COVID relief package and see whether or not a paycheck protection program for disaster declared areas is in order.”
Congress may try to add the disaster money to a larger government funding package they’re working to pass before the Dec. 20 federal funding deadline.
“That’s a lot of work to do but we could get it done and that’s my hope,” Kaine said.
They all agree the sooner it passes the better.
“To get businesses, to get homes, to get people back on their feet. That’s what people are waiting for and that’s one of the reasons for their frustration,” Budd said.
“We need to do this swiftly, and we need to do it without political gamesmanship,” Ossoff said.
“People are hurting. We have got to get the money out there,” Tillis said.
