FEMA needs more funds after spending nearly half of 2025 'disaster budget' in 8 days

In just eight days into Fiscal Year 2025, FEMA has spent nearly half of its disaster budget as two hurricanes have swamped the Southeast United States. This comes as the federal agency has been hit with heavy scrutiny after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters that FEMA's funding for relief will not make it to the end of the hurricane season, which lasts until the end of November.

According to Politico, the rapid spending that followed for efforts to help with Hurricane Helene, will continue as Hurricane Milton slammed Florida on Wednesday. “I’m going to have to evaluate how quickly we’re burning the remaining dollars in the Disaster Relief Fund,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told the press on Wednesday, just hours before Milton made landfall. The agency has been vying for Congress to approve more funding to the Disaster Relief Fund.



Criswell disclosed that of the $20 billion that was allocated to FEMA's disaster fund on Oct. 1, the agency has spent around $9 billion of it in just a little over a week. Fiscal Year 2025 runs through Sept. 20, 2025.

This draws contrast to what the Biden-Harris administration said earlier this week, claiming in a press release, "FEMA has sufficient funding to both support the response to Hurricane Milton and continue to support the response to Hurricane Helene." Additionally, FEMA has been slammed for using over $640 million in order to pay for sheltering illegal immigrants in the US.

The funding for the shelters was allocated to FEMA by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in a 2024 appropriations package for what is called the "Shelter Services Program." The funding for the program in 2023 was $800 million, and was meant "to support sheltering and related activities provided by non-Federal entities, including facility improvements and construction, in support of relieving overcrowding in short-term holding facilities" managed by CBP for illegal immigrants. 

Politico reports that without more funding from Congress dedicated to disaster relief, the agency will be forced to stop other disaster projects and only put funding towards life-saving operations. “We keep a reserve in the Disaster Relief Fund to make sure I can always cover these life-saving activities,” Criswell said. Prior to the hurricanes the FEMA official suggested that she would only have to impose those restrictions in January or February.