FEMA Public Assistance

 

The events of recent weeks on the Moscow-Washington axis have highlighted an at times contradictory attitude of the Biden administration which, even if it is part of a still decidedly aggressive inclination towards Russia, at least suggests the existence of a certain degree of conflict over strategic orientations within the American government apparatus FEMA Public Assistance. The signs of a possible rethinking of ferociously anti-Russian policies remain in any case in the background. At the same time, the attack fronts against Putin and the Kremlin seem to multiply, demonstrating the influence that the "hawks" of the star establishment continue to exert and strips about the Democratic president.

The US Senate dismissed an emergency measure late Monday evening that averted imminent paralysis of federal agencies and offices, again threatened by lack of funding FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP). The most recent stalemate in the American Congress had arisen from the proposal to allocate special funds to deal with the consequences of the repeated natural disasters that have occurred in the last few months in various parts of the country; an emergency exploited politically by the Republicans to try to extract further cuts in public spending.

 

In a story that was essentially resolved in the umpteenth capitulation of the Democratic Party in the face of the requests of the Republican, in the end, practically no extra dollar was allocated from Washington for the relief and reconstruction activities carried out by the American civil protection (FEMA, Federal Emergency Management Agency).

The FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program section was part of a budget package designed to finance federal spending until November 18 Cost Estimating. A total of $ 3.65 billion was expected for the government agency that deals with responding to natural disasters in the US, $ 2.65 billion to be disbursed early next fiscal year - starting October 1 - and one billion in special funds for the one still in progress.

But to give the green light to the additional billion, Republicans demanded that 1.6 billion be cut allocated to a federal program of incentives for the production of energy-efficient cars, particularly popular with Democrats BRIC (Building Resilience in Communities). Faced with the firm opposition of the latter, the Republican-majority House of Representatives last Friday nevertheless proceeded to vote on a measure including the cuts, albeit without any possibility of overcoming the obstacle of the Senate.

 

The impasse in the upper house of Congress was eventually overcome, avoiding the danger of a federal government "shutdown" on Monday, when FEMA announced that it had raised $ 114 million, destined for other projects but unused, which should allow it to operate until next Friday. Having overcome the obstacle, the Senate approved the temporary budget with 79 votes in favor and 12 against it. As confirmed by the speaker John Boehner, the final vote of the House will be held next week, after a one-week suspension of the work.

 

Thanks to the bipartisan agreement, BRIC will thus obtain the $ 2.65 billion allocated to its budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year starting next Saturday. Without the extra billion, however, its operations in the US will be significantly reduced in the last days of September, while no intervention will be possible in the event of new disasters.

FEMA, moreover, is penalized by a chronic shortage of funds and, in light of the multiplication of emergencies in the last period, its budget will in all likelihood have to be discussed again by Congress soon. The White House itself has already made it known that FEMA will need at least $ 4.6 billion in the next fiscal year, a figure that many believe is well below the real needs of the agency.

Faced with dramatic situations, with thousands of people without housing, public services, and infrastructure to rebuild, the victims of recent earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, and hurricanes are therefore held hostage by the ongoing political confrontation over Washington's debt. Up until the recent past, appropriations for emergencies following natural disasters - albeit often insufficient - were approved by Congress without hindrance.

 

The debt fever that has plagued the entire American political landscape and the Republican one seems instead to have brought to the plan the need to balance the expenses for assistance to the victims of disasters with other cuts in public spending Disaster Recovery. If this principle has not yet been adopted, in any case, it appears inevitable that, given the current climate, it will already be re-proposed on the occasion of the following emergency.

 

 

The umpteenth staging of a Congress that does not know how to give answers to the consequences of the economic crisis or those of natural disasters represented a new opportunity to implement further austerity measures. In recent months, ultimatums and mandatory deadlines have been revised several times, used to implement devastating cuts in federal spending, promptly presented as inevitable for the very survival of the services guaranteed by the government.

 

In April, for example, the Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner, and President Obama reached an agreement on extending the financing of the federal machine within minutes of a sensational "shutdown." For example, the most striking of this strategy deliberately adopted to digest the assaults on public spending, however, is that of last August, when a bipartisan agreement was reached at the last minute to raise the American debt ceiling in exchange for colossal cuts.

 

From that pact between Republicans and Democrats, a special commission emerged charged with identifying and proposing to Congress by the end of the year spending cuts of at least 1,500 billion dollars. Add to this the current White House plan to reduce federal spending by another $ 4 trillion over the next decade. A proposal touted directly by Obama includes cuts of over $ 4 billion to the FEMA program for insurance coverage for damage caused by natural disasters.