FACT SHEET: White House Calls on Congress to Support Critical Domestic Needs
The Biden-Harris Administration is delivering on its promises – lowering costs for families, protecting American lives from the devastating impacts of challenges like the climate crisis and the opioid epidemic, and ensuring America can compete to win in the global marketplace. At the same time, additional resources are needed to meet the needs of the American people, support our communities, and protect our nation and its interests.
The Administration continues to call on Congress to reach a comprehensive, bipartisan agreement to fund the Government, which is critical for a number of bipartisan priorities – including child care, nutrition assistance, public health, research and development, and national security. The Administration also recently communicated with Congress about critical funding needs for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), the Student Aid Administration, and the Social Security Administration to prevent harmful impacts on women and children, students, seniors and individuals with disabilities in the coming year, and we expect Congress to address these needs as well as today’s supplemental funding request.
In the meantime, in order to advance critical domestic priorities and address urgent needs, the Biden-Harris Administration is calling on Congress to provide additional domestic resources that will:
Support Communities Facing Extreme Weather and Climate Disasters
As the President has said repeatedly, the Administration will stand with communities as they recover from extreme weather and climate disasters for as long as it takes. The Administration’s request is based on current estimates of need in communities affected by recent disasters, and the Administration will work with Congress to continue to assess these needs to fully support recovery and rebuilding. To meet our commitment to communities facing flooding, extreme heat, catastrophic wildfires, drought, and other severe weather events over the past year, the Administration is requesting:
- Funding for the Disaster Relief Fund to enable FEMA to continue supporting critical response efforts and recovery projects in communities across the country.
- Support for specific disaster-recovery needs, including wildfires on Maui, the Guam typhoon, hurricanes in Florida and the southeastern United States, floods in California and Vermont, tornadoes in Mississippi and other natural disasters across the country.
- Resources for rural residents, farmers, highway repairs, housing, businesses, K-12 schools, and institutions of higher education adversely affected by disasters nationwide.
- Funding to implement permanent, comprehensive pay reform for wildland firefighters through the end of the fiscal year. Without congressional action, our nation’s heroic Federal wildland firefighters will face a pay cliff starting as soon as November, with salaries being cut by $20,000 or, in some cases, as much as 50% of base pay.
- Funding to minimize the economic and employment impacts of disasters, including support for workers to meet cleanup and recovery needs following disasters, and for employment and training services to help Americans who have been dislocated or otherwise put out of work due to disaster-related impacts.
- Additional funding to states, territories and Tribes through the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to help cover home heating costs, settle unpaid utility bills, and make cost-effective home energy repairs to lower families’ heating and cooling bills. Last year alone LIHEAP served more than six million households. This funding is critical to preventing drastic service and benefit cuts compared to last year.