‘People need help now’: Biden details working with Republicans on Helene relief

Biden has not ruled out ordering Congress into a special session

President Joe Biden, right, is greeted by Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., at Moody Air Force Base, Ga., Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, during a tour to visit areas damaged by Hurricane Helene. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (AP)

Funding to clean up the devastating Hurricane Helene, which has killed over 200 people, is desperately needed now, President Joe Biden said on Thursday — and he has still not ruled out ordering Congress to a special session to make it happen.

Biden, who spent the day touring storm damage in Florida and Georgia, rejected House Speaker Mike Johnson’s suggestion that a delay until the post-election period could be acceptable rather than call Congress back into session from their pre-election recess.

“We can't wait,” Biden said. “People need help now,.”

The president’s comments came on the tail end of remarks he delivered at a farm in Ray City, Georgia after touring damage left after the Category Four storm cut a swath of destruction stretching from Florida to North Carolina last week.

Biden said he’d been briefed by officials during his earlier stop in Florida on the damage caused by the 15-foot storm surge — a wall of water high enough to submerge a three-story building.

“I came here to Georgia to meet all of you, to see firsthand how you're doing ... because we're really in this together,” said Biden.

“In times like this, it’s time to put politics aside ... it’s not one state versus another state, we’re the United States. There are no Democrats or Republicans here.”

Biden recalled how he has been committed to being a “president for all Americans” and noted that the major legislation enacted during his time in office has, for the most part, been passed on a bipartisan basis.

What’s more, he said those bills have sent far more funds to so-called “red” states that typically elect Republicans than they do to “blue” states that lean Democratic.

“Our job is to help as many people as we can ... when you do that, I hope again to break down this rabid partisanship that exists — I mean it sincerely, there’s no rationale for it,” Biden said.

He added that the government is looking to help “as many people as we can,” which is why he ordered resources to be pre-positioned extensively throughout the Southeastern United States as Helene approached the coast of Florida.

“I also immediately approved emergency declarations your governor and others asked for, and so all of us could focus on the first responders and standing up emergency operation centers. That was the focus,” he added.

Biden said the federal assistance being deployed in the affected areas includes help from the Department of Agriculture and Federal Emergency Management Agency, which are sending workers door to door to register people for assistance — including farmers — so they can receive help in the form of funds or needed supplies from food, to medicine, to housing assistance, to feed for livestock.

“We're going to preserve and persevere to get through all this. Because folks, this United States of America — the United States America. There's not a damn thing we can't get done — nothing beyond our capacity — when we work together and put politics aside,” he said.

The president’s remarks came just days after he told The Independent that he had not ruled out calling Congress back into a special session to consider a supplemental appropriations bill for disaster relief.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas has said his department has sufficient funds to handle initial relief efforts from Helene but he has warned that more money will need to be appropriated to handle long-term recovery, as well as more hurricanes that are expected to hit this season.