Tammy Duckworth will object to Rick Scott’s disaster relief bill
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Sen. Rick Scott Demands Immediate Senate Vote on Disaster Relief Package
FEMA forced to restrict disaster spending because of low funds
The Biden administration has been criticized in recent days over the support offered to survivors of the deadly wildfires in Maui, compared to the billions in U.S. aid sent to Ukraine.
Joe Biden’s Aid to Hawaii vs Ukraine Aid Compared: What We Know
To date, the Biden-Harris Administration has approved nearly $7 million in assistance to nearly 2,200 households, including nearly $3 million in initial rental assistance.
White House Calls for $40 Billion Supplemental
If enacted, the supplemental would provide $24.0 billion of additional aid to Ukraine – on top of the $113 billion the United States provided in 2022 alone. This includes $13.1 billion of military aid and replenishment of Pentagon weapons stocks, $8.7 billion of economic and humanitarian aid, and $2.3 billion to leverage additional aid from other donors through the World Bank.
That’s approximately $137 billion to Ukraine, $10 million, or so, for Hawaii (in soft loans and rental assistance)!
FEMA Money For Maui Disaster Relief May Get Caught Up In A Partisan Fight Over Ukraine
But the effort to get a speedy appropriation has foundered after the Biden administration sought $12 billion in emergency funding that would extend disaster relief programs while simultaneously requesting some $24.1 billion in military spending for Ukraine in the same package.
That means that funding Hawaii’s needs for Maui’s recovery has been tied to funding to back Ukraine’s military, an increasingly unpopular topic in some Republican circles. When the House passed its fiscal 2024 defense authorization bill early this summer, a contingent of several dozen House Republicans sought to prohibit additional U.S. assistance to Ukraine.
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