More than 40 congressional Democrats plan to fire off a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday urging him to call Congress back from recess to vote on supplemental disaster aid.
The letter, led by Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), ranking member on the Energy-Water Appropriations Subcommittee, will be sent Wednesday afternoon, just hours before Hurricane Milton’s expected arrival on Florida’s Gulf Coast and as communities across the Southeast are still reeling from Hurricane Helene’s catastrophic landfall less than two weeks ago.
It marks the latest escalation in lawmakers’ efforts to get Congress to reconvene to refill federal disaster accounts that are at risk of running out of money in a matter of weeks.
“The frequency and intensity of these extreme weather events are a clarion call for proactive measures,” the Democrats wrote. “The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) must be equipped not only to respond to current disasters but also to adequately prepare for future events.”
