HOW TO REFILL AFTER THE STORMS Less than $100 million remains for new federal disaster loans, according to a fresh tally from the Small Business Administration that comes as a one-two punch of fall hurricanes threatens to drain the program. Congressional leaders still have no intention of calling lawmakers back to town, however, even as the White House warns the program “will run out of funding in a matter of weeks and well before the Congress is planning to reconvene.” So Hill leaders and the Biden administration are likely to need a fallback solution to make sure loans are available to people rebuilding homes and businesses — before Congress gavels back in on Nov. 12. That’s particularly true if Hurricane Milton lives up to its scariest damage forecasts in Florida this week. The most obvious (and somewhat wonky) workaround: Passing legislation in a pro forma session. Albeit rare, Congress can pass bills during its brief recess sessions, when one lawmaker stands at the speaker’s dais before a nearly empty chamber, the chaplain delivers a short prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance is recited. The catch? Any lawmaker can show up to quash a request to quickly pass a bill without a roll-call vote. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) did that five years ago, when he led a group of House conservatives in blocking pro-forma passage of a roughly $19 billion disaster aid package. The numbers: The Small Business Administration is requesting Congress provide $1.6 billion in new funding to cover the disaster loan program for the current fiscal year. The agency bankrolled almost $3 billion in loans for disaster survivors last year, lending up to $2 million per business and up to $500,000 for homeowners. In this case, the Biden administration has little power to shift cash to fix the problem on its own. The Small Business Administration can’t make disaster loan offers if funding runs out, even though it can continue to share information about the loan program and help borrowers with some initial loan processing. FEMA’s fine for now: For FEMA’s disaster relief fund that covers things like temporary housing and longer-term recovery like rebuilding schools, filling the funding gap is less urgent, even as a second mega-storm charts its course toward Florida’s Gulf Coast this week. Hurricane Milton is likely to sap the disaster relief fund sooner than FEMA anticipated, pushing the agency into cash-conservation mode earlier than its January estimate. But the agency is expected to have enough money to cover all disaster response work until at least after Election Day with the more than $20 billion Congress cleared before recess. — Jennifer Scholtes GOOD EVENING! Welcome to Inside Congress, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Tuesday, Oct. 8, where this new dating app sounds like hell. GOP RAMPS UP FEMA PROBES Even as Congress gears up to greenlight more disaster relief funds later this year, congressional Republicans are separately ramping up oversight on how FEMA has responded to Hurricane Helene. Rep. Anthony D’Espositio (R-N.Y.) — a Homeland Security subcommittee chair in a tough reelection race — has already launched a probe. In a letter to FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, he asked for details on how the agency pre-positioned resources and what modeling they used to predict Helene’s path and potential damages. D’Esposito is giving the agency until Oct. 18 to respond. “As you know, community resiliency depends on accurate forecasting and the pre-positioning of resources in advance of a natural disaster,” D’Esposito wrote in the letter. D’Esposito and Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), another subcommittee chair, said in a joint statement that they were “closely monitoring both the impacts of Hurricane Helene and the federal government’s response to any homeland security or public safety risks arising from the damage” including being in “active contact” with FEMA and CISA. “We stand ready to assist all relevant Committees in ensuring that DHS's response is swift, effective, and focused on building long-term resilience in our communities and infrastructure,” the lawmakers added. Separately, a House Oversight spokesperson said that the panel, which also has jurisdiction over FEMA, was “monitoring the federal response.” There’s also some ad hoc investigating happening, particularly within the House’s right flank. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), whose district was impacted by Helene, sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas saying his office had been in touch with whistleblowers who he described as being in "numerous emergency-management functions at the federal, state and local levels and they all point to the same critical management issues." Latest on Helene misinformation: Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) released a public letter on Tuesday trying to debunk “outrageous rumors” that he said he’s seen online, including a bullet point saying “Nobody can control the weather” (despite some House GOP assertions). — Jordain Carney DEFICIT TICKS TOWARD $2T Lawmakers will be welcomed back from recess next month by a number of hugely consequential fiscal decisions. Most immediately: additional disaster aid to address short-term and long-term recovery needs, in addition to funding the government for fiscal 2025, which began Oct. 1. It will only get messier from there, with the expiration of Trump-era tax cuts and another debt limit standoff approaching quickly next year. And how these showdowns shake out will largely depend on how the power dynamics will shift given November’s election results. As lawmakers look to make those potentially deficit-busting choices, the Congressional Budget Office is out with its roundup for fiscal 2024, finding the federal budget gap — or the difference between how much money the government spends and how much it takes in — totaled $1.8 trillion last fiscal year. That’s $139 billion more than the deficit recorded for fiscal 2023, which would have been closer to $2 trillion if it weren’t for the budget consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the president’s student loan debt cancellation plans. Budget hawks are sounding the alarm, noting that last year’s budget gap is almost double what it was before the pandemic. “We’re now borrowing $5 billion per day, while interest payments are soaring,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a fiscally focused think tank. “We face massive headwinds with debt set to reach an all-time record as a share of the economy by 2027; and we don’t even have a plan to address our fiscal challenges.” In a statement, White House spokesperson Jeremy Edwards noted that Biden has signed $1 trillion of deficit reduction into law, while his budget proposes chipping away at the budget gap by another $3 trillion. “After the last administration increased the debt by a record $8 trillion and didn’t sign a single law to reduce the deficit, Congressional Republicans want to once again blow up the debt with $5 trillion in more Trump tax cuts — while imposing a new $4,000 sales tax on middle class families and cutting Social Security, Medicare, the Affordable Care Act, and more,” Edwards said. — Caitlin Emma
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