Former President Donald Trump said Monday he would like Congress to come back into session early to approve extra disaster relief spending for hurricane-hammered areas of the Southeast.
“I would be in favor of it, yeah,” the 78-year-old Republican nominee told reporters after touring damage caused by Hurricane Helene near Asheville, NC.
“This is a very unusual situation, and I would be in favor of it,” the 45th president affirmed.
Congress currently isn’t due back in session until Nov. 12, one week after Election Day, and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has bucked pressure to gavel back in early, citing the lack of specific funding requests.
The Small Business Administration announced last week that it has depleted its disaster loan program funding, though it urged storm survivors to continue applying for aid.
“We know that swift financial relief can help communities recover quickly to stabilize local economies,” Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman said Oct. 15.
“While we await Congress to provide much-needed funding, we strongly encourage eligible businesses and households to apply for SBA disaster loans,” Guzman added. “SBA will continue to support homeowners, renters, businesses and nonprofits in processing their applications to ensure they receive assistance quickly once funds are replenished.”
In a statement to The Post Monday, Johnson said: “There’s no question these devastating back-to-back storms have stressed the SBA funding program. But the Biden-Harris Administration has the necessary disaster funding right now to address the immediate needs of American people in these hurricane-affected areas.
“Congress is tracking this situation closely, and when Members return in just a few short weeks, the Administration should have an accurate assessment of the actual dollar amount needed and there will be strong bipartisan support to provide the necessary funding,” the speaker added.
President Biden has also pushed for Congress to come back into session early to re-up disaster aid.
There have also been calls to infuse more cash into the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), despite leadership claiming to have sufficient short-term resources to handle the aftermath of Helene and Hurricane Milton.
During his Monday visit, Trump also ripped into the federal government’s response to Helene, which made landfall Sept. 26 and killed at least 225 people — including 95 in North Carolina.
“Many Americans in this region felt helpless and abandoned and left behind by their government,” he said. “And yet, in North Carolina’s hour of desperation, the American people answered the call — much more so than your federal government.”
North Carolina is one of seven swing states that will decide the 2024 election, and speculation has run rampant that rural voters affected by the storm may not turn out to vote for Trump Nov. 5.
“Voting is the least of it right now,” Trump replied to a question about the impact on Election Day.
“The thing that amazes most is that areas like this and others where it’s so hard to vote … you know they’ve set a record in voting,” the former president said, musing that “these tend to be Trump areas.”
Trump won North Carolina’s 15 electoral votes in each of his previous two runs for the White House. The Tar Heel State has backed a Democrat for president just twice since 1968 — Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Barack Obama in 2008.
Trump leads Vice President Kamala Harris by 0.5 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics average of North Carolina polls.
