Disaster Relief Spending

On Thursday, The House of Representatives is expected to take action on a bipartisan agreement ending a dispute over disaster relief spending that threatened to cause a partial shutdown of the government by the end of the week. The House is going to approve legislation that will pass a short-term spending extension through October 4. On Monday night, the Senate approved bills, which together will fund the federal government for the first seven weeks of the new fiscal year beginning Saturday. Democrats and Republicans have been arguing over whether or not to cut spending elsewhere in order to offset increased disaster relief funding in the current fiscal year. On Monday, FEMA ended their dispute by saying that it has enough money to get through the rest of the current fiscal year without assistance. The new agreement may only provide a temporary solution to FEMA's funding woes. Administration officials say that more funds will be required for the agency soon. The Senate had initially passed legislation providing $6.9 billion in funding for FEMA and other federal agencies, to be used for disaster relief both immediately and in the new fiscal year. If Congress had failed to reach a new spending agreement, a partial government shutdown would have occurred at the close of the current the fiscal year at midnight Friday. We shall see whether or not the government is willing to cut spending elsewhere in order to provide more assistance for disaster relief spending.