Senate panel boosts FEMA funding

A Democratic-led Senate panel dramatically increased federal disaster aid in the wake of Hurricane Irene and FEMA’s budget shortfalls, setting up an almost certain showdown with the GOP-controlled House whose leaders have sought to limit disaster help unless it can be offset with spending cuts elsewhere in the federal budget.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is expected to run out of disaster aid in a matter of months, and it has already begun to prioritize which victims will receive federal assistance.

“It remains our responsibility to make the necessary investments to secure the homeland,” said Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), the chairwoman of the appropriations subcommittee on Homeland Security. The full Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to take up the issue on Wednesday.

The subcommittee increased the disaster account to $6 billion for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1 – almost double the amount approved earlier this year by the Republican-led House. It is also well above the White House request for $1.8 billion.

In the aftermath of natural disasters this year, FEMA’s account has dwindled to low levels. After Hurricane Irene, which pummeled the Eastern Seaboard last month, FEMA prioritized aid – giving help to those needing immediate food and shelter, but postponing long-term rebuilding assistance to communities hit by earlier disasters.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) has said that additional disaster funds must be offset with spending reductions elsewhere, and the House-approved bill does just that.

The GOP-led House’s bill paid for disaster funds by cutting other accounts in the Homeland Security budget, including a grant program to train and equip firefighters, and elsewhere in the federal government.

Other Republican leaders have similarly said aid must not be added to the national deficit, but paid for with dollar-per-dollar reductions.

The GOP position got a boost Tuesday from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan watchdog group, which said that the nation cannot continue to run high deficits and pile on to long-term debt.

“If something is worth doing, it’s worth paying for,” said the organization’s president, Maya MacGuineas. “A sustained economic recovery is going to require that we stop adding to our debt burden.”