'Shameful!' Johnson slammed for saying Congress won’t cut recess to pass disaster relief

Maya Boddie, Alternet
October 6, 2024 

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks to the media following the passage of a stopgap bill to keep the federal government funded for another three months and avert a month-end partial shutdown, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., September 25, 2024. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw

Although Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) plans to visit the western part of North Carolina this week in the "deadly and devastating" aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Politico reports the GOP lawmaker has confirmed that Congress doesn't plan to provide any disaster aid before November.

Johnson's trip to the Tar Heel State comes amid Congress' nearly five-week-long recess, which several Democratic and Republican lawmakers are calling to cut short due to the need to "pass additional disaster relief funding," according to Axios.

However, Politico's Olivia Beavers reported via X early Sunday morning that "Speaker Mike Johnson will NOT be calling the House back early to vote on a disaster aid supplemental in the wake of the Hurricane."
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Beavers added: "He tells me the cost of damages has to be 'tabulated' before a supplemental is considered and he argued they are a ways away from that."

One X user pointed out that in his "Letter to Congress on Disaster Needs" published Friday, President Joe Biden wrote:

Most urgently, the Small Business Administration's (SBA) disaster loan program will run out of funding in a matter of weeks and well before the Congress is planning to reconvene. I warned the Congress of this potential shortfall even before Hurricane Helene landed on America's shores. I requested more funding for SBA multiple times over the past several months, and most recently, my Administration underscored that request as you prepared a continuing resolution to fund the Government. Now the need is even more urgent.

Axios notes that even right-wing lawmakers like Sen. Rick Scott (FL) and US Rep. Ralph Norman (SC) say they "would support coming back to DC to pass supplemental relief for the hurricane relief assistance."

North Carolina Democratic congressional candidate Chuck Hubbard responded to Beavers' report, saying: "This is unacceptable and shameful! Republicans in Congress are failing Helene victims. Congress must act now to pass urgently needed disaster aid."