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The last-minute budget bill before the U.S. Congress, unveiled Tuesday night, includes billions of dollars in funding for disaster aid that Georgia leaders have been pushing for.
The continuing resolution for the federal budget includes $100 billion in emergency aid for victims of Hurricane Helene and other disasters. It specifically sets aside $21 billion for agricultural disaster relief.
“If we expect hardworking Georgians to do their job in the midst of disaster, they should expect us to do ours,” Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock said on the Senate floor last month as part of the effort to pass this funding. “It is reasonable service. It is the least we can do.”
Georgia’s congressional delegation, Gov. Brian Kemp and community leaders have been calling for more federal funding for disaster recovery since Hurricane Helene devastated a wide swath of the state in September, particularly hitting many farms.
“The simple fact is that many of these family farms will fold, and they may fold soon,” Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff testified last month.
“They’re staring at devastated farmland and orchards, they’re deep in the red and they’re under immense stress. If they go under, our rural communities go under.”
Advocates from Georgia and other hard-hit states gathered on Capitol Hill last week to join the ongoing calls for aid and stress that many of those hit by storms are still recovering. Concerned Citizens of Cook County chair Treva Gear said Georgia families are facing winter and the holidays in badly damaged homes.
“I know people who have tarps on their homes, and now it’s cold, and that drafty air is coming in through your house while you’re trying to maintain it being heated,” Gear said.
On top of the federal aid, the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency has announced it plans to set up a temporary shelter program for people whose homes were severely damaged or destroyed by Helene.
Gov. Kemp has also said disaster aid and response will be a main priority in the legislative session that begins in January.
A state House study committee on disaster mitigation is recommending the creation of a new position of chief resiliency officer to develop a state plan and coordinate disaster response efforts. In the committee’s final meeting this week, its chair, Republican Representative Clint Crowe, said disaster planning is often neglected until a storm hits and it’s too late.
“This is really to make sure that there’s somebody who has their eye on the ball on this topic all the time,” he said.
The committee is also recommending upgrades to 911 technology across the state, a requirement that facilities like nursing homes have backup power sources and a reforestation tax credit to help heavily damaged timber plantations recover.
