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New wave of calls for Congress to vote on disaster aid before election
There is a new wave of calls for Congress to return to Washington to respond to the growing costs of Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Multiple members of Congress from hurricane-ravaged states have issued new calls for the U.S. House and Senate to respond to the depletion of funds from the U.S. Small Business Administration disaster loan fund.
“It’s unacceptable that Congress remains in recess while families and businesses across North Carolina and beyond are in urgent need of assistance,” said Rep. Wally Nickel, a first-term Democrat from North Carolina.
Nickel said, “In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, our communities are struggling to recover and our small businesses are desperate for support as they work to rebuild. Their recovery efforts are stalled without additional funding.”
Congress has returned home through the middle of November, as the entire U.S. House and nearly a third of the Senate face reelection races. Congressional leaders have defied calls for action on the loan funds before the election.
The U.S. Small Business Administration announced Tuesday that it had exhausted the available funds in its disaster loan program, which is used by businesses and homeowners who are affected by natural disasters. According to CBS News reporting earlier this month, the agency had issued warnings to legislators that the hurricanes risked draining needed funds and urged Congress to swiftly approve more money.
The agency said, “Until Congress appropriates additional funds, the SBA is pausing new loan offers for its direct, low-interest, long-term loans to disaster survivors.” The agency said it will continue to urge victims to apply for loans “given assurances from Congressional leaders that additional funding will be provided upon Congress’s return in November.”
Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, said he has urged Senate leaders to reconvene as soon as possible after assessments of damage and the needs of agencies, including the Small Business Administration. In a statement posted on social media, Scott said he has spoken with the Small Business Administration to discuss the needs of his constituents.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Florida Democrat and former state emergency manager, told CBS News, “Thousands of applications are coming in each day for disaster loans following Hurricane Helene and Milton. Congress knew this fund was running low as we left for recess during hurricane season, and we failed to be proactive. We shouldn’t be waiting until mid-November to come back to D.C. and fix this.”
Speaker Mike Johnson’s office did not immediately return a request for comment about Congress returning early to address Small Business Administration funding. On “Face the Nation” Sunday, Johnson addressed questions about whether Congress should return early to respond to calls to bolster funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Johnson said, “Congress can’t meet and just send money on a guess or an estimate of what the damages are. The way supplemental disaster funding is provided is that, you know, the state sends in actual needs. It’s assessed by Congress and then handed out that way. But again, remember, they have billions, tens of billions of dollars that were already sent to FEMA, one day before Helene made landfall. So they have plenty of resources.”
Three people were killed and several more seriously injured Wednesday when a bridge in Mississippi that was closed nearly a month ago collapsed while a work crew was prepping it for demolition, authorities said.
The bridge over the Strong River on State Route 149 in Simpson County, about 40 miles south of Jackson, had been closed to traffic since Sept. 18 as part of a bridge replacement project, the Mississippi Department of Transportation said in a news release.
Gov. Tate Reeves said in a post on social media late Wednesday that first responders from the county and “other state assets have been on the scene at the tragedy” where they’d confirmed at least three fatalities and multiple injuries.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a social media post late Wednesday that the Federal Highway Administration was “engaging state officials concerning” the “premature collapse during demolition of a bridge on State Route 149 in Mississippi.”
Simpson County Sheriff Paul Mullins had previously told WLBT-TV three people were killed and four critically injured.
Terry Tutor, the Simpson County coroner, told the New York Times that seven men were working on the bridge, using heavy machinery to tear it down, when it gave way and plummeted nearly 40 feet. He said three of the men died, and four were injured, the Times reported.
Mullins and Tutor didn’t immediately respond to messages Wednesday night from The Associated Press.
A call to the construction company, T.L. Wallace Construction, was unanswered Wednesday evening, and it was not possible to leave a message.
Department of Transportation spokesperson Anna Ehrgott said the agency “would share more information with the public as it becomes available.”
The department said one of its inspectors was at the work site when the bridge collapsed, and that person was unharmed.
The U.S. military conducted airstrikes on several Houthi weapons storage facilities in Yemen, the Pentagon said Wednesday.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that U.S. Air Force B-2 stealth bombers were part of an operation to conduct “precision strikes” on five underground weapons storage locations in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
“U.S. forces targeted several of the Houthis’ underground facilities housing various weapons components of types that the Houthis have used to target civilian and military vessels throughout the region,” Austin said.
Lloyd said he authorized the strikes at the direction of President Biden.
This marks the latest in several such U.S. airstrikes targeting the Iran-backed Houthi militant group in retaliation for Houthi missile attacks on vessels in the Red Sea. Earlier this month, U.S. Central Command reported that U.S. aircraft and warships had struck 15 targets containing Houthi offensive military capabilities.
The U.S., U.K. and its allies have conducted several rounds of joint strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen dating back to mid-January.
Since November 2023, the Houthis have conducted dozens of missile and drone attacks on commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea in what it says is a response to the Israel-Hamas war. Those attacks caused major supply chain disruptions worldwide. The Houthis have sank two commercial vessels, and a missile attack in March on a Liberian-owned ship in the Gulf of Aden killed three people.
Houthi militants hijacked an Israeli-linked cargo ship last November, taking crew members hostage.
And in an escalation of events, the Houthis directly struck downtown Tel Aviv with a drone in July which killed one person and injured eight others. That attack prompted Israel to retaliate with its own airstrikes in Yemen.
In his statement Lloyd said that “for over a year” the Houthis “have recklessly and unlawfully attacked U.S. and international vessels transiting the Red Sea, the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait, and the Gulf of Aden. The Houthis’ illegal attacks continue to disrupt the free flow of international commerce, threaten environmental catastrophe, and put innocent civilian lives and U.S. and partner forces’ lives at risk.”
In January, the Biden administration declared the Houthis to be a “specially designated global terrorist group.”
contributed to this report.
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