Hurricane Milton is about to slam into Florida. Trump is busy spreading lies about FEMA

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has become a political football at a very crucial moment

While the second major hurricane in less than two weeks bears down on Florida, concerns continue to swirl regarding the budget health of the nation’s federal relief agency — one that faces rampant misinformation claims about how it spends money.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is experiencing a budget shortfall, although Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has assured Americans that the agency has enough resources to help residents affected by the Category 4 storm who are still picking up the pieces after Hurricane Helene.

“Everybody should rest confident that FEMA has the resources. We already have 900 personnel deployed, prepositioned in Florida,” the secretary said in a Monday interview on MSNBC. “We can respond to multiple events at a single time.”

The agency is now not only dealing with the budget concerns, it is also pushing back on misinformation. Some have said the agency is short money because its spending on migrant care. While FEMA falls under the Homeland Security umbrella, along with the agency that oversees border security, officails say they are different funding streams.

Still, FEMA, which has provided more than $210 million to Hurricane Helene survivors, has become a focus for both sides of the political aisle.

Earlier in the month, Mayorkas told reporters that FEMA does not have enough money to make it through the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs through the end of November. Mayorkas was not specific about how much money it may need, and Congress recently approved $20 billion for the agency’s disaster relief fund as part of a short-term spending bill. The legislation also gave FEMA the ability to draw on the money as quickly as was needed.

Now, President Joe Biden is calling on lawmakers to return to the nation’s capital to approve additional funding — something House Speaker Mike Johnson has so far declined, saying Congress will return after the election.

His comments come as Hurricane Milton set to slam into Florida in a matter of hours.

The president wrote in a letter last week that even though FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund has the resources it requires to meet immediate needs, it faces a shortfall by the year’s end.

“Without additional funding, FEMA would be required to forego longer-term recovery activities in favor of meeting urgent needs. Congress should provide FEMA additional resources to avoid forcing that kind of unnecessary trade-off and to give the communities we serve the certainty of knowing that help will be ongoing, both for the short- and long-term,” Biden said.

Congress appropriated more than $35 billion in disaster relief funds for fiscal year 2024, according to FEMA statistics. FEMA lifted an immediate needs funding status - which had paused some programs - for disaster relief late last month.

Biden also said that the Small Business Administration’s disaster loan program will run out of funding in just a matter of weeks. SBA loans are often the largest source of federal disaster recovery funds, with money used to rebuild homes and repair damage to vehicles and businesses.

The SBA provides disaster loans up to $500,000 for homeowners to repair or replace damaged or destroyed real estate, and homeowners and renters are eligible for up to $100,000 to repair or replace personal property.

A man enters a FEMA station in western North Carolina on Saturday. FEMA has provided more than $210 million to survivors of Hurricane Helene across six Southeast states, but the agency faces dwindling funding and political rumors (REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo)

The shortfall comes as Milton is expected to completely flood and flatten homes, bringing powerful winds and up to a 15ft storm surge. FEMA Director Deanne Criswell traveled to Florida on Monday to meet with officials and direct federal response efforts.

Notably, FEMA is facing a staffing shortage, with just 9 percent of its personnel available to respond to the hurricanes. The other personal being responsible for other disasters and tasks.

The agency’s precarious position comes Democrats and Republicans continue to spar over the federal response to Helene, with former President Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance propagating false claims about the agency and its money.

Both candidates have claimed, without evidence, that disaster relief money for Americans is being doled out to undocumented immigrants. It’s a narrative that FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security, and the White House have been forced to deny, with FEMA publishing its own website to respond to misinformation.

Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris takes part in a briefing at the DC FEMA headquarters last month. The agency has faced misinformation and a budget crunch in recent weeks (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell were separately on MSNBC Monday responding to the misinformation.

“The reality is that FEMA has so many resources that are available to folks who desperately need them,” Harris said. Criswell said leaders spreading Helene misinformation were impeding federal response.

The White House released a memo over the weekend seeking to “fight falsehoods,” including a claim that FEMA would only provide $750 to disaster survivors.

That amount of money, it said, is what is immediately available to eligible survivors for food, water, and other basics - but they may qualify for more financial assistance to cover storm damage. People can apply for that assistance through the FEMA helpline, the FEMA app, at a disaster recovery center location, or at DisasterAssistance.gov.

FEMA has also denied claims that the $750 of “Serious Needs Assistance” was a loan that needed to be repaid.

“We do not ask for this money back,” FEMA spokesperson Jaclyn Rothenberg wrote on Twitter/X.

With reporting from The Associated Press