Only eight days into the fiscal year FEMA spent nearly half its disaster budget

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell speaks on a video screen (right) as White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre listens during a press briefing Wednesday at the White House. | Ben Curtis/AP

Revelation 13:16-18 “Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.”

Important Takeaways:

  • The rapid spending — which is likely to accelerate as aid flows to states pulverized by Hurricanes Helene and Milton — soon will force the Federal Emergency Management Agency to restrict spending unless Congress approves additional funding.
  • Under the spending restrictions, FEMA would cut off funding for disaster-related rebuilding projects nationwide and reserve its money for life-saving operations during disasters.
  • The cutoff often halts major repairs to roads, sewer plants and water-treatment facilities.
  • FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell disclosed that as of Tuesday, FEMA had spent $9 billion of the $20 billion that Congress put in FEMA’s disaster fund Oct. 1 for the fiscal year that runs through Sept. 30, 2025.
  • It was the first time FEMA has publicly stated how much money it has since Hurricane Helene hit the Southeast two weeks ago.
  • Small Business Administration Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman said that money to operate the program will run out “before the end of October.”
  • If the agency’s funding lapses, it will continue accepting applications but will not process them until program funding is replenished.
  • FEMA has frequently struggled to pay disaster costs and has imposed spending restrictions on 10 occasions since 2003, most recently in early August.
  • Part of the reason FEMA has spent so much money this fiscal year is that it lifted the spending restriction on Oct. 1, when Congress replenished the disaster fund.
  • Criswell stopped short of saying Wednesday that FEMA might have to stop performing life-saving operations such as search-and-rescue missions.

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