Jacob Ogles
After initially undercutting disaster spending amid uncertainty about federal funding, the Senate has moved toward the House position on relief to communities.
The latest Senate budget offer in the Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development budget silo includes more than $646 million for funding to communities for federally declared disasters.
That puts the upper chamber in alignment with the House’s current budget proposal. It also resolves one of the greatest budget disparities between the chambers over weeks of overtime negotiations.
The Senate, which initially called for more than $846 million in the line item, tried bringing that item down to just $100 million, with a promise to communities that as long as federal dollars remained available, governments could ask for support and still receive it.
That decision derived chiefly from budget uncertainty at the federal level, where President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have openly discussed whether to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and move responsibility for disaster response largely to the states.
But the House has always maintained that regardless of what happens with FEMA, the state needs to budget appropriately for disaster funding. The Senate ultimately came into line with that position.
“The underlying issue on the line is the same — this is not state revenue, it is authority to spend federal funding,” said Katherine Betta, a spokesperson for the Senate President’s Office.
Senate Appropriations Chair Ed Hooper, a Clearwater Republican, declined to expound on the decision further in a media availability.
House Budget Committee Chair Lawrence McClure, a Dover Republican, said the spread in numbers before was just a “funding discussion” and not as great a negotiation as the number might indicate.
But coming into agreement on the level of funding brings the difference overall between the chambers much closer. The total Department of Emergency Management budget under the House proposal sits north of $971 million, while the Senate latest offer puts it at about $1.01 billion.
