WASHINGTON, D.C. — From the Senate floor tonight, U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) urged his colleagues to work together to pass disaster aid for communities across America, admonishing his House Republican colleagues for holding up the bipartisan funding deal and threatening a government shutdown.
Watch Senator Welch’s remarks here:
Read Senator Welch’s Remarks:
“We had an agreement. We had an agreement that was reached between House Republicans and Democrats—and a bipartisan agreement here in the Senate. It was to provide desperately needed disaster relief to citizens who were in the eye of storms in Vermont, in North Carolina, in Iowa, in Texas—$100 billion. What that meant in Vermont was that communities that had put money out to fix culverts, to repair bridges, to realign roads, and who were expecting the money from FEMA in this disaster assistance, suddenly are on hold. Will they get it? We don’t know at this moment.
“Farms—where farmers had lost their crops in July of ‘23, and we had another flood in July of ‘24. Couples who were running these farms were making existential decisions about whether they could keep farming, and we need them. We need them to be able to keep farming. We need it for Vermont. We need it to show respect for our farmers. They are awaiting an answer as to whether this disaster relief will come through. This is going to have a huge impact on Vermont.
“Our property taxpayers, who suffer from enormously high property taxes—they’ll be pounded if that relief doesn’t get back to those communities where they fronted money for that culvert repair, the bridge repair, the road repair.
“Our small businesses that have been hammered as well, and are awaiting an answer on whether they can get relief from the assistance in that program. Homeowners who have been told that they can get money for a buyout because their home was destroyed in a flood—and what a horrible thing for folks to have to go through. A lot of that happened in July of 2023. But then to have to go through the constant uncertainty and bureaucratic delays that have been so rampant in FEMA. We had this moment where $100 billion dollars was going to be available to help in Vermont and other states where this relief is necessary. And it’s not right that after we had this agreement, negotiated on a bipartisan basis, it’s pulled out from underneath us.
“And, by the way, one of the great experiences I’ve had in the United States Senate, was working with colleagues, my Republican colleagues—like Thom Tillis and like Ted Budd from North Carolina—whose citizens suffered an enormous loss from what happened in Hurricane Helene. It wiped out bookstores in Asheville; restaurants in Asheville needed help.
“It was so gratifying to me to see that all of us, whether we represented folks in a red state or a blue state, whether the constituents who are in-need voted for Trump or Harris—it just didn’t matter. Our obligation was to help them. And that is a basic responsibility that this Congress has when our citizens, through no fault of their own, suffer enormous economic loss as a result of a natural weather event. We had this agreement. What happened?
“Literally, we had this agreement. Speaker Johnson signed off on it. Leadership here signed off on it. Mr. Musk sent out a tweet. He didn’t like it, and he blew the entire thing up. How is it that one person can have so much power to destroy something that the American people really need?
“$277 million contribution to a campaign gets you a seat at the table. Maybe the head seat at the table. And that—flat out—is wrong. The American people, those folks who suffered in Ashville, North Carolina and in Lyndonville, Vermont—they are entitled to immediate action.
“So, we don’t know what the next few hours are going to be, but what I know is that I will not abandon Vermonters. I will not abandon Americans who are counting on this disaster relief. I am going to hang in there to make certain I do every single thing I can to help the Vermonters, and the North Carolinians, and the folks in Iowa, and Texas, and Louisiana, who have been in the path of these terrible storms.”
Senator Welch and the Vermont Congressional Delegation have advocated for disaster aid funding since Vermont’s catastrophic floods of July 2023. Senator Welch has worked with Republicans in the Senate and House of Representatives to shape a bipartisan funding package for Vermont’s homeowners, farmers, and rural communities. It contains many of his top priorities: dedicated help for Vermont’s flood-impacted farmers, flexible spending through the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Relief fund, money for FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund, and support for businesses through the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), among so much more.
Background on the Comprehensive Disaster Aid in the Continuing Resolution:
$100.4 billion in disaster aid:
- $29 billion will fund FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund
- More than $33 billion is dedicated to supporting agriculture, which includes:
- $21 billion for disaster assistance to farmers and producers, including dedicated funding set aside via block grants for Vermont disaster victims who experiences crop, timber, livestock and on-farm infrastructure losses for 2023-2024;
- $920 million for the Emergency Watershed Protection Program, to provide financial assistance to support debris removal and watershed restoration;
- $362.5 million for the Rural Disaster Assistance Fund, to allow USDA Rural Development to quickly and flexibly address disasters-related needs using its existing programs, tailored to the specific needs of affected communities; and
- $25 million in commodity assistance, which can help states with nutrition assistance.
- The disaster aid funding also includes other funding:
- $12 billion in Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Relief funds to help communities recover with flexible funding;
- $8 billion for the Federal Highways Administration emergency relief to reimburse states impacted by natural disasters; and
- $2.25 billion for SBA loans.
###