The White House on Tuesday said it was asking Congress for at least $24 billion in disaster aid, as President Joe Biden toured more states hard hit by Hurricane Ida.
With Biden surveying storm damage in New Jersey and New York, the White House said Congress should provide more than $14 billion to address natural disasters that occurred before Ida, and that at least another $10 billion would be needed for damage caused by Ida.
Read: Biden surveys storm damage in New York and New Jersey after Hurricane Ida
The administration made the request as it pressed Congress for a stopgap budget bill to keep the government running past Sept. 30, which is the end of the government’s fiscal year.
“With the end of the fiscal year rapidly approaching, it’s clear that Congress will need to pass a short-term continuing resolution (CR) to provide more time for the FY 2022 process to unfold,” the White House budget office’s acting director, Shalanda Young, said in a blog post.
The administration’s fresh requests come as lawmakers in Washington are staring down a debt-limit battle, and Democrats are pressing forward on Biden’s massive infrastructure
PAVE,
and social-spending plans. It’s possible government funding and the debt limit could be handled in one bill in the coming weeks.
The White House is also asking Congress for $6.4 billion for resettling Afghans, after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s takeover of the country.
This post was originally published on Market Watch
