Whitney Fox wants Congress to reconvene to address Milton relief

Whitney Fox, Democratic candidate for Florida’s 13th Congressional Districtistrcit, holds a press conference outside the HCA Florida Northside Hospital discussing the six-week abortion ban taking effect in Florida on Wednesday May 1. Image via Whitney Fox For Congress.

Congressional candidate Whitney Fox says Congress must reconvene to budget more disaster relief after Hurricane Milton struck Florida.

The St. Petersburg Democrat, who is challenging Republican U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna in November, issued the first of likely many post-storm calls. Those two candidates are running in Florida’s 13th Congressional District, where Pinellas County residents took a significant lashing from the storm.

“Lives hang in the balance,” Fox said. “Congress must act swiftly to provide resources for victims, cut through red tape, and jump-start recovery efforts. This isn’t about politics — it’s about American lives.”

Congress in September reached a deal to fund the government through the November election. Luna notably was among 82 House Republicans to vote against that spending package. A total of 11 Florida Republicans in the house voted against it.

Fox has since hammered Luna over the vote, though Luna’s campaign last month pushed back on accusations that the Congresswoman voted against funding relief through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

“Whitney Fox is clueless as to how FEMA works,” Luna spokesperson Olivia Carson said.

CD 13 saw significant impact from both Milton and from Hurricane Helene just two weeks before that. Luna notably was in North Carolina campaigning with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump between storms.

As of early Thursday, more than 420,000 Pinellas County electric customers remained without power. The storm made landfall south of Tampa Bay, near Siesta Key, around 8:30 Wednesday evening, delivering heavy rains and storm surge to communities immediately north of the storm’s eye.

“My heart breaks for our community,” said Fox, whose own family evacuated from the storm. “The scenes of destruction across Pinellas are gut-wrenching. Hundreds of thousands without power, failed water systems, and catastrophic damage from two hurricanes in quick succession. It’s a nightmare, and we need help now.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has resisted calls from President Joe Biden and from bipartisan members of Congress to reconvene lawmakers and pass an additional budget supplement.

Johnson has said FEMA should have the stopgap funding it needs now, and that it would take time to calculate the full cost of the storm.

“I don’t think those estimates could conceivably be completed until at least 30 days — until after the election, and that’s when Congress will be back in session again,” he told Fox News ahead of the storm’s landfall.

Fox said the situation demands more urgency.

“Reconvene Congress now. Pass clean disaster relief. Show that in times of crisis, Americans unite and rise to the challenge,” Fox said.

“Our community’s spirit is unbreakable, but we can’t rebuild alone. We need leaders who understand that their highest calling is to serve the people. As we recover, we’ll remember who truly stood with us when it mattered most.”