KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A spending bill passed by Congress allocated $20 billion to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief fund, ahead of Hurricane Helene’s landfall.
At the end of September, the United States Congress approved the stopgap spending bill to fund the government through Dec. 20. Some of the money in the bill could go to recovery efforts for the East Tennessee area. However, some lawmakers from East Tennessee voted against the stopgap spending bill.
The bill funds several programs and federal agencies, including the Secret Service and the National Flood Insurance Program. Republican Representative Chuck Fleischmann voted in favor of the spending bill.
“In addition to that, in the continuing resolution, there was language which will allow FEMA to encroach upon other FEMA funds, that were designed for non-disasters,” he said.
Other members of the Tennessee caucus voted against the bill. Those included Republican Representatives Tim Burchett, Andy Ogles and John Rose. Tennessee's Republican senators, Bill Hagerty and Marsha Blackburn, also voted against the bill.
Statements from those lawmakers about why they voted against the bill are available below.
Republican Representative Tim Burchett
“The continuing resolutions in September had many irresponsible spending policies I couldn’t support in good conscience. Congress allocated $20 billion in FEMA funds last year, but the Biden administration used over $1 billion of it on illegal immigrants instead of preparing to help Americans in crisis. I've been staying in contact with FEMA and TEMA about their recovery efforts in East Tennessee and working to help however I can, and there are also many private corporations and charities that are stepping up to get the job done.”
Republican Representative John Rose
“Tennesseans sent me to Washington to make difficult decisions on how to spend their hard-earned taxpayer dollars and not take the easy route by voting for a CR that extends inflationary spending into the lame duck session of Congress.
“With the national debt well over $35 trillion and government deficits topping $1.7 trillion a year, I could not in good conscience support a continuation of the status quo. Washington must take after Tennessee and restore fiscal constraint or risk driving the future prosperity of our country off an insurmountable fiscal ledge.”
Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn
“Senator Blackburn supports hurricane relief and will fight to ensure Tennesseans receive all federal assistance necessary to rebuild. Senator Blackburn does not support a reckless spending spree that does nothing to reduce our deficit and funds flying illegals into our country.”
Republican Senator Bill Hagerty
“There was no supplemental funding for FEMA in the September appropriations bill. In fact, one of the reasons Senator Hagerty opposed the bill was because it included FEMA money for hotels for illegal aliens instead of addressing the crises facing the American people. He also opposed the bill because it reflected a broken federal spending process in which Chuck Schumer refused to allow votes on specific funding priorities, which would allow Congress to allocate resources more wisely than this.”
As of Monday afternoon, there has not been any vote on supplemental funding for FEMA. Fleischmann’s office said he previously said he would vote to pass more supplemental funding for FEMA.