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Subscribe to RSSThe three states hardest hit by super-storm Sandy in October are requesting $80 billion in emergency funding, raising long-term questions about the federal government’s planning for seemingly ever-more expensive disaster spending.
In his press briefing Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters, “I met with Gov. (Andrew) Cuomo (of New York) yesterday; I understand Gov. (Chris) Christie (of New Jersey) is coming today or tomorrow.” Reid said he met with a White House aide Tuesday morning on the emergency spending and predicted that Congress would get a formal spending request “in the next 48 hours” from the White House.
J. Scott Applewhite / AP
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev. gestures as he speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012, following a Democratic strategy session. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
On Tuesday Christie requested 100 percent federal reimbursement, instead of the normal 75 percent, for his state’s costs in the aftermath of Sandy. In a letter to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate, Christie said, “The financial burden and economic hardship still confronted by our state and communities threatens the ability to continue debris removal operations at the existing (75 percent) cost-share ratio.”
On Wednesday senators from the three states — New York, New Jersey and Connecticut — will make their case for emergency funds before a Senate Appropriations Committee panel headed by a senator who knows firsthand about the effects of a catastrophic weather event: Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu. After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, the federal government eventually spent about $120 billion.
Landrieu said in an interview Tuesday that if Congress does start spending $80 billion every few years on disaster recovery, “it really throws the (spending) averages off and we’re going to have a very serious conversation about how to go forward in the next decade. We’re going to take a good look at that, but right now our job is to get help to the Northeast and that’s what we’re going to do.”
If the United States has entered an era in which mega-storms, perhaps related to climate change, are becoming the “new normal,” it will create new spending pressures at a time when federal revenues every year are falling roughly $1 trillion short of outlays. If you factor in a growing population and development in coastal areas, then storm damage is likely to become even more expensive over time.
Congress and Obama right now are working hard to figure out how to undo the spending cuts that both sides agreed to last year in the Budget Control Act. So adding another $80 billion every few years might not be so strange. It might just be another object lesson in the unpredictability and perhaps the unreality of the federal budget process.
Even with no emergency spending on disaster relief, the Congressional Budget Office forecasts that spending between this year and 2023 will increase by 55 percent. Demographic changes – ever-growing Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security spending on the aging Baby Boomers – could be colliding with climate change, leaving a very heavy burden on younger workers.
A senator whose state was hit by the catastrophic Joplin tornado in 2011, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said Tuesday, “You can’t plan for every disaster, but you can plan for a reasonable amount of annual disaster spending. And the other thing you can do is more clearly evaluate when something reaches the federal disaster level, when something is too big to be handled by a community and the state that community is in.”
He added, “One of the things we’ve failed to do in recent years is to really carefully evaluate the level of disaster. We haven’t increased the disaster criteria in a couple of decades.”
Blunt said a Government Accountability Office report he requested last year found that the federal government declares a lot more events disasters than it did in past decades “so that by the time you get to a real disaster the money is gone.”
The GAO report said that “The growing number of disaster declarations — a record 98 in fiscal year 2011 compared with 65 in 2004 — has contributed to increased federal disaster costs.” That was in part due to the FEMA standard (a per capita damage indicator) having remained unchanged since 1986, not reflecting the rise in per capita personal income since 1986.
In a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing Wednesday on how FEMA is responding to Sandy and how it could more effectively react to future catastrophes, committee member Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., whose district includes lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn that were devastated by Sandy’s storm surge, said that the city and the state of New York “do not have billions of dollars sitting in their coffers in advance to fund repairs, and FEMA reimbursement is slow and cumbersome. In fact, New York still is waiting for payment for Hurricane Irene (from August of 2011). And I’m sure many of my colleagues have had similar experiences in their states.”
Nadler and other congressional Democrats argue that the emergency money for Sandy should be spent without Congress making spending cuts elsewhere to offset the new outlays. Waiting for Congress to come up with offsetting cuts, he said, would simply get in the way of “our most important job — protecting our citizens when calamity strikes.”
The $80 billion should be spent, Nadler said, in a way that protects against future storms “and we have every reason to believe that future storms will threaten us again — and soon.”
At the House hearing, Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md., was the first committee member to raise the topic of what she called “the elephant in the room: global climate change.”
In an interview outside the hearing, Edwards told NBCNews.com, “I do think we have to look seriously at climate change when we think about the way we need to build our infrastructure and to mitigate possible damage from future storms.” She said some protective infrastructure spending today could avert higher post-catastrophe costs in the future.
Edwards did not give a cost estimate for disaster-resistant infrastructure spending. “I don’t think we’ve even begun to explore the kinds of mitigation efforts we need all along our coastline in areas of very dense population where the impact when a disaster happens is tremendous.”
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Whether climate change is responsible for these storms or not is irrelevant. The amount of destruction is the direct result of cities, counties, and states not paying attention to mother nature and providing building permits for such hazard prone areas. How can anyone build on a beach front, river bank or an area that lies below sea level and not expect problems. The state should be prepared to replace infrastructure in the event of such an catastrophe but the home owner should have or be required to have adequate insurance to cover at least the cost of clean up on their property. If the insurance is inadequate to replace the dwelling that is the fault of the home/business owner. The Federal government should only provide adequate security and humanitarian aid.
wyominggrandfather===Tell me if your area of the United States was hit by something Mother Nature threw at you would you be typing these same sentences, as you did today? I don't think you would be.
Smokie, Obviously you have never been to Wyoming. Mother Nature is constantly throwing stuff around. Wyoming
Grandfather is right in most ways. I grew up in New York on Long Island which was also affected by Sandy. Hurricanes were frequent 50 years ago and we would rely on public works to repair roads and transportation, but we would mop on and then go help our neighbors. We would fix what we could, then hope that insurance would cover some of the losses. We lived on the water and knew what the risks were. We expected tese events and compensated for them.
Government has a role to inform the public and affect rescue efforts and use tax revenues to repair infrastructure.
Pigotry--it's not just the Republicuns, the Demoncrats are also the ones pushing for bigger government--how foolish you are.
Pigotry
Mother Nature had nothing to do with Sandy. America, which began as a Christian nation has been abandoned by God and is feeling the wrath of His judgement. I know most will disagree but time will prove me correct.
ED: Do you have a point. Or are you just crap. My solution is cut government spending. What's yours? Fascist/marxist thuggery to force me to "help my neighbor"? Jerk.
Let's hope they are better helped that we in Louisiana after the oil disaster and hurricane Isaac. We're still suffering from Obama's moratorium on the oil drilling and we need help desperately for damage from Isaac, but none seems to be coming. Perhaps because Louisiana voted red. . . . . .
Your great governor and the people of Louisiana can do it if the Feds did not hinder you with regulations, obamacare and taxes. You also have that welfare town of New Orleans dragging you down. Secede.
Noladude-2763286===No the people that live North of Louisiana and all of the Gulf States only worry about us when our refineries ae shut down by Mother Nature and the price of gas goes up. They also forget that about 25% of the oil this country uses passes under our feet in pipelines that go everywhere in this country. Yet some of these same people stopped the Keystone Pipeline. Nut!!
Paul from NM===We in Louisiana might be a lot of things but we are not a welfare State. You have to go North to those inner cities to find that. New Orleans is still rebuilding from Katrina and Issac, Uncle Sam is the one dragging his feet. The people on the East Coast will find out just how slow Sam works.
I have been a homeowner for almost 50 years, during that entire time I have always made sure I have adequate insurance to cover any disaster, I was taught this by my parents at an early age so although I feel for these people who are struggling, I don't feel the need for all of the rest of us to bail them out. If they don't have enough common sense to protect their property then possibly they can qualify for low interest loans to help them rebuild but the rest of us should not be paying for it.
I also believe that the states should be responsible for repairing any damage to their infastructure with help again from federal loans not grants. All politicians (both parties) need to stop the irresponsible waste of taxpayers money, the almost extinct middle class just can't pay for everything on the politicians wish list.
warlock-4183472====I'm sure that many of the people on the East Coast carried insurance but help from the Federal Government will be needed anyway. The cost are just way to high for any State to carry. You have to wonder just who pays for damages from earthquakes, flooding of river deltas, tornadoes or any other natural disaster. You don't know very much if you didn't live through it. The next time there is a hurricane knocking on the doors of the Gulf Coast States come on down spend some time with us.
Well you cant predict nature. But Provisions have to be made for disasters like Sandy and other national calamities. Suggest a Presidents Relief Fund be created and all donations given to the Presidents Relief Fund be exempted from tax. And whatever amount is received from the Public to the Presidents Relief Fund AN Equal Amount be contributed by the State. This will keep a buffer amount to be made available in times of national calamities. GOD Bless the Americans. GOD BLESS THE USA.
Kevin Valentine Moraes
Mira Road (Thane)
Sandy was minor. YES, I said minor! Just because a brief, one storm caused such damage does not make it the biggest climate change story of the year.
Ask farmers in Iowa, Indiana, Illionis, Oklahoma, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, etc. This year has been a devastating drought! The economic fallout from the drought has already been several times that from even the highest estimates for Sandy!
Forecasts for this winter aren't any relief either. Even just the start of this winter has already made national news in the amount of damage.
If you worry about the weather or climate, don't just wait on sensationalized news on single storms. Look at the trend! We get warmer and drier years in the US over time!
Yeah, I know some of you will continue to deny that any of this is happening, or will try to blame it on non-human causes. And if I try to point out that over 95% of scientists, (based on their statements) and over 99.5% of expert climate scientists (based on their publications) say that climate change is due to human activity, you will try to rationalize that the few percent 'disproves' everything. Fine, go on, denying data.
Even the fossil fuel corporations are now declaring you are wrong! (see the official statement from Exxon Mobil!!!)
PIGOTRY!! This country is called a Democracy because we have a two party system where people have the right to choose who represents them.While bashing on Republicans is your right to free speech,Suggesting that we go to a one party system is purely National Socialism.Remember this,If the GOP is a hoax that makes your beloved Democratic party a waste of time.Good vs Evil,whatever you want to call it but it's all the same.I am wasting my breath as some of you far left people are just way to far gone to matter.
Hey Washington ... here is a political game you all can play ... when all you guys and gals in congress get together for your annual "earmark" bids ... hows about taking 'our' money and put into FEMA instead. If for nothing else, it would be for a good causes. Beats the heck out of spending our money on airports in the middle of nowhere that nobody uses.
suck it up easterners! don't expect those who live and work in the midwest to cover your butts because you made a choice to live in coastal areas. deal with it!
I'm pretty sure there were people in Joplin who felt this way too. Right up until those tornadoes practically destroyed their town. The midwest is not immune to natural disasters.
lets just increase the taxes on everyone making over $10k per year, raid medicare and SS for $39 billion more apiece. That should pay for it! Oh wait, I see we've still got checks in the old check book.......
Where are all those ultra rich Dem celebrities that party with Obama and pretend to care so much for their fellow man. Why haven't any of them given some of their wealth to the people in need of housing and use their money to have new homes constructed for the victims of the hurricane. They are all talk and no walk!
Oh and maybe Obama and Michelle could donate the money they will be using on their 20 day vacation to rebuild a few homes for these people! Including all the taxpayer dollars to fly on Air force 1.
What Federal Budget?? We don't have one of those things and haven't had one for over 3 years now. You can't cap spending when you don't know what you are spending.
The East Coast States will get help from the Federal Government and if they have a questions about what the Government will do or has done, just remember what steps were taken after 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina.
So someone stick a sock in Charles Schumers mouth.
Republicans who want to downsize the Gov't now want that fed gov't to pick up 100% of their cost
If we listen to "Grover" and downsize the Federal Gov't to the size of the bathtub WHO would pick up the cost????? Like having a Rich uncle and telling him to stop GIVING MONEY TO THE OTHER NEEDY Nephews and nieces but give it to YOU and he says I don't have it and YOU respond than borrow it
and don't forget the cost of LAWSUITS sure to come and Federal dollars to settle eg 9/11 New orleans Fema had to pay bigtime lawsuits ( thank you taxpayers)
stop saving the world and bring the money home to save the USA
Top 20 storms in damages in 2012 dollars.
http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.com/2012/10/sandy-and-top-20-normalized-us.html
The top three and the years they happened:
#1 1926 Miami
#2 1900 Galveston
#3 1915 Galveston
and all were rebuilt without FEMA now LA Florida NY still waiting to rebuild
Just wondering what we did BEFORE there was a FEMA and storms hit? before FEMA rebuilt and moved on
After FEMA? still waiting to rebuild. think about that
FEMA, like all other government agencies, has two separate phases that they go through.
The first phase is when they are getting established and funded; and, in this phase they spend all their time and resources telling you everything they are going to do for you.
In the second phase when the agency is fully established, they spend all their time and resources telling you why they can't do anything for you.
Obama is only out done by the number of flights back and forth to the Texas Ranch of Bush and the $2M spent by Mrs. Reagan on china for the White House.
say no to a carbon tax. lets not touch the energy industry- they have contributed so Much to the GOP
Here is a thought. Instead of Obama running to congress and asking for 50B to aid hurricane victims, how about we let the people who want the money take out their own loans and repay it instead of our country taking out the loans to buy it for them?
Guess what, folks. The federal government doesn't have billions of dollars sitting in the public coffers either. What it does have is 16 trillion dollars in IOUs, soon to be 17 trillion. I hope that historians are carefully documenting what is going on in the U.S. Because it seems to be well on the road to become another failed democracy, one that was ruined after the makers in society became overwhelmed by the takers and fakers.
We spend way too much as a country and as individuals on things that should not be on the top of our spending list, everything from tatoos and pierced noses/lips and other body parts to lattee's/specialty drinks (instead of regular coffee you can make yourself for 10 cents a cup), to foreign located American military bases protecting countries that even compete with ours and put Americans out of work (Japanese and German cars for one, being protected from Chinese and Russian invasion by American forces, mideast oil producers for another which mainly Japan and Europe need that oil more than USA needs any mideast oil) - we have nuclear sub and ship fleets that can strike anywhere on the planet in minutes and we can mobilize ground forces in a couple hours from US soil, so why all the foreign bases, let those countries protect themselves instead of living off our defense we pay for them out of our taxes? What the heck are we spending money and resources on so many non-necessity things for when we have the biggest homeless and bankruptcy and fed/state/local gov budget problems in history? We also can use those foreign based military forces and expenditures back home protecting our borders and responding to our natural disaster emergency response and recoveries.