For activities like FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene, whose devastating effects are still being felt in North Carolina, the agency relies on the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF), which is a “no-year fund” that is available for as long as it takes to spend rather than being beholden to fiscal years. That means the fund would not be immediately impacted if Congress fails to reach an agreement to fund the federal government by the weekend deadline.
“They’re not going to stop emergency work—FEMA has authority to continue providing emergency lifesaving measures even during a shutdown,” said Erin Greten, of counsel for the firm Baker Donelson, who wrote a brief on shutdowns’ effects on FEMA in September.
“It’s not like they’re just going to walk away, they’ll continue to perform their mission,” Greten said.
However, she added, a government shutdown would hamper FEMA efforts if the agency is forced to implement immediate-needs funding and essentially triage spending. The agency must implement immediate-needs funding guidance, which prioritizes lifesaving operations, when funding will not cover all activity.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned during this year’s hurricane season that the amount of money in the DRF was insufficient to continue responding to new disasters without a supplemental funding bill.
Read more at TheHill.com.
