Fox hosts complain about White House press secretary urging Congress to reconvene to approve hurricane response funds

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) is among those urging Congress to reconvene

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

From the October 8, 2024, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends

STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): Today is Tuesday. It is exactly four weeks before the election, and there's a brand new New York Times poll — came out, an hour and 14 minutes ago. And Kamala Harris has a slim lead. And once again, we've been talking about the polls. They are neck and neck. She's up by three. They were tied in mid-September. It is now 49 to 46. That is why we're seeing more of her, and we've been talking a little bit about how she's trying to get ahead with the storms and stuff like that. That's one of the reasons why over the weekend, she was out, and the administration was promoting the fact that this administration has sent a hundred and fifty-sevel million dollars to Lebanon. Now that's one thing. But it comes as the same time that there are tens of thousands of Americans struggling, and the federal government doesn't have enough money for them. Peter Doocy asked some very basic questions about how lopsided that is. So let me get this straight. We got money for Lebanon. We don't have money for people in North Carolina. If you miss it, here is this extraordinary interchange.

...

AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): She's missing what he was trying to ask. He was just saying why can we give all this money to Lebanon and without Congress's permission, but yet Congress has to come back to give money to our Americans in North Carolina and in Florida. That's all he was saying, and she's saying you don't want Congress to come back. No.

LAWRENCE JONES (CO-HOST):  Ainsley, she knows exactly what he's saying. She being intentionally obtuse, pretending like she doesn't understand there are people, I just got back from there — they are frustrated that they are not getting the resources at a faster rate. I know they say FEMA is there, but the people aren't seeing them. That's the bottom line. People are not seeing them on the ground. They are seeing Samaritan's Purse. The country is a giving country. But when they see other people getting resources before them, they get pretty hot about it. And there's dead bodies still having to be dragged out right now, which is sad. There's no government agency on the ground that's doing, those are private organizations that are doing the work. And so for Peter to ask the question that most Americans that are in this tragedy are feeling, and for her to reject it as disinformation, you don't like the question but it's not disinformation.

BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): We're also watching everyone cover for this administration, The New York Times,  the Washington Post, almost every network is not acknowledging the fact that they've taken a week to ask the military to get involved.

JONES: Yes.

KILMEADE: These are hard-to-reach areas, it's different than Florida is going to need. These are hard-to-reach areas. You needed the army, they are literally one hour away and you waited a week. Don't say you didn't need them because you called them last Thursday when you could have had them in country, in the state working on Monday.

CBS News reports (emphasis added):

Only $1.6 billion remains in a federal program to help small businesses impacted by hurricanes and natural disasters — enough funding for only a few more weeks without emergency intervention by Congress. Multiple Biden administration and congressional sources told CBS News there are concerns funding will be depleted by the end of this month.   

The remaining pot of funding in the Small Business Administration's disaster loan fund is being severely strained by the damage of Hurricane Helene, CBS News has learned, and the Small Business Administration has received at least 3,000 applications every day since Hurricane Helene struck the Southeast. One administration official said there is not sufficient money to last until Congress' scheduled return to Washington after the November elections.

Congress failed to include additional funding for the disaster fund when it passed a short-term spending bill to fund the federal government in September. Although there is optimism that sufficient money remains to help offset the costs of the Federal Emergency Management Agency until Congress returns during the week of Nov. 12, there are growing concerns that the Small Business Administration disaster money will run dry.

CBS specifically notes that the Republican senator from Florida Rick Scott is among those asking Congress to reconvene immediately:

An aide to Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, told CBS News that Scott spoke with President Biden about the need for Congress to swiftly reconvene and approve new federal aid to respond to Helene's destruction.

“While I know from my experience with previous hurricanes that FEMA and SBA damage assessments take time, I am today urging Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to immediately reconvene the U.S. Senate when those assessments are completed so that we can pass the clean supplemental disaster funding bill and other disaster relief legislation,” Scott said in a news release.