Infuriated GOP lawmakers have blamed Mayorkas and the Biden-Harris administration for a shortfall in funding to respond to future hurricanes in the remainder of this year’s season. Republicans have claimed that the FEMA spent money on the border crisis that ought to have gone toward its natural disaster response.

“We have the immediate needs right now. On a continuing resolution, we have funds, but that is not a stable source of supply, if you will,” Mayorkas said aboard Air Force One Wednesday while headed to South Carolina with President Joe Biden.

“We are expecting another hurricane hitting,” Mayorkas said of the hurricane season ending Nov. 30. “We do not have the funds. FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season and what — what is imminent.”

FEMA rejects Trump’s claims on migrants taking hurricane money

Former President Donald Trump accused Biden of redirecting money from FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund to respond to the border crisis.

“The Harris-Biden administration says they don’t have any money [for hurricane relief]. … They spent it all on illegal migrants,” Trump said during a campaign rally in Saginaw, Michigan, on Thursday. “They stole the FEMA money just like they stole it from a bank, so they could give it to their illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them.”

FEMA’s hurricane response coffers are short, but not because the agency moved money to respond to migrants at the southern border, DHS retorted.

“These claims are completely false,” DHS said in a statement. “The Shelter and Services Program (SSP) is a completely separate, appropriated grant program that was authorized and funded by Congress and is not associated in any way with FEMA’s disaster-related authorities or funding streams.”

FEMA disaster funding not increased by Congress

FEMA has spent more than $1 billion on border-related matters because of the emergency situation it has presented to border communities and cities within the U.S. that have received high numbers of immigrants.

Data on FEMA’s website show that Congress funded more than $1 billion in fiscal years 2023 and 2024 to reimburse nonprofits and state and city governments that paid for shelter and food to help immigrants released by the Border Patrol.

FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program is funded by Congress and DHS could not have filled the fund with money from another FEMA program, according to the DHS.

In 2023, the DHS and FEMA announced $363 million to FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program. In 2024, FEMA put $650 million toward the SSP.

The need for more disaster funding

FEMA has faced more natural disasters in recent years than a decade ago, leaving the agency in need of more money than it relied on in previous years. Disasters struck twice as often in 2023 than at the same point in 2016, according to FEMA.

FEMA had $20 billion to respond to natural disasters this year and lawmakers in Washington skirted the chance to add more than $10 billion in supplemental funding packed inside the continuing resolution that was passed last month.

Amid the funding shortfall for the duration of the hurricane season, Biden has considered calling Congress back to town despite the recess through the election. If lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill, they could pass more funding to shore up FEMA’s coffers for the rest of the year.

“That is something I may have to request, but no decision’s been made yet,” Biden told reporters on Sept. 30.

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Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), whose home state is often in the path of destructive hurricane storms, said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) should “immediately reconvene” the upper chamber to pass additional funding for disaster relief once FEMA has concluded its review of images throughout the southeast region.

“Floridians are resilient, but the response and recovery from this storm demands the full and immediate support of government at every level to get families and businesses back to normal,” Scott said in a statement.