NEW ORLEANS — In your Breakdown: FEMA is dealing with an imbalance of misinformation - and money - with millions in the path of major Hurricane Milton.
As of Sunday, FEMA had provided more than 137 million dollars in federal aid for Helene survivors, but there’s been concern that FEMA is running out of cash.
Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said FEMA needs more funding to make it through hurricane season. It will take an act of Congress to provide more.
Congress did not include additional funding in the Disaster Relief Fund when it passed a short-term spending bill before lawmakers went home for a break.
Some are pushing for Congress to reconvene and act before the election.
The White House is more optimistic, writing in a statement Monday: “FEMA has sufficient funding to both support the response to Hurricane Milton and continue to support the response to Hurricane Helene– including funding to support first responders and provide immediate assistance to disaster survivors.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson will not commit to calling Congress back to Washington but did address lies spreading that FEMA’s disaster funding was being diverted to house undocumented migrants.
The misinformation about FEMA has gotten so bad the agency set up a Rumor Response page on its website.
We won’t ultimately know if FEMA needs more immediate disaster funding until Hurricane Milton makes landfall.
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.