The Hill

Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump said Monday that she hasn’t talked to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) about filling Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) seat.

“Well, listen, this is obviously up to the governor, and I thought his post on X was very appropriate,” Lara Trump told radio hosts Rita Cosby and John Catsimatidis on the “Cats & Cosby show on WABC 770 AM, seemingly referencing a Monday morning post on the social platform X by DeSantis.

“I think that’s exactly the kind of person who should be serving in Marco Rubio’s Senate seat, and I have not had a conversation with him,” she continued, adding that she does “know the Make America Great Again, America First agenda better than anyone.”

In the Monday morning X post that President-elect Trump’s daughter-in-law appeared to reference in her “Cats & Cosby” appearance, DeSantis said his state “deserves a Senator who will help President Trump deliver on his election mandate, be strong on immigration and border security, take on the entrenched bureaucracy and administrative state, reverse the nation’s fiscal decline, be animated by conservative principles, and has a proven record of results.”

Last week, Trump said he had picked Rubio to be his secretary of State in his upcoming administration. The president-elect said in a statement that the Florida senator, despite being a past rival to Trump, is a “Highly Respected Leader, and a very powerful Voice for Freedom.”

“He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries,” he added.

In her Monday radio interview, Lara Trump said she is familiar with “the people of Florida.”

“I’ve been a Florida resident for three and a half years, and I’ve been really honored to serve as co-Chair of the RNC throughout the duration of this campaign,” she added. “And so listen, if I’m asked to serve in the capacity of the United States Senate, it’s something I would consider.”

The Hill has reached out to DeSantis’s communications office for comment.

President-elect Trump said Monday that his selection for the role of transportation secretary in his upcoming administration is former Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.)

“I am pleased to announce that former Congressman Sean Duffy, from the Great State of Wisconsin, is nominated to serve as the Secretary of Transportation,” Trump said in a statement. “Sean has been a tremendous and well-liked public servant, starting his career as a District Attorney for Ashland, Wisconsin, and later elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District.”

Duffly left the House in late 2019 in the wake of learning that one of his children had a heart condition. He has historically been a supporter of the president-elect, defending Trump’s controversial 2017 executive order on immigration imposing a 90-day ban on nationals from seven mostly Muslim countries from coming into the U.S.

“What’s wrong with a pause? We’ve having a pause for 90 days. Why is that so radical?” Duffy said on CNN’s “New Day” at the time.

In his Monday statement, Trump said Duffy “was a respected voice and communicator in the Republican Conference, advocating for Fiscal Responsibility, Economic Growth, and Rural Development” while “in Congress.”

Trump also urged Duffy to run for Wisconsin governor in 2022, saying he was trying “hard to get very popular and capable Former Congressman Sean Duffy of Wisconsin to run for Governor” in late 2021.

Duffy said later in early 2022 that he would not run for the Badger State’s top office.

“Hopefully I’m not riding off into the sunset,” Duffy said Thursday on 1130 WISN, a talk radio station. “I’m just running into the sunset right now. If an opportunity presents itself, I’d like to come back and partake in Wisconsin politics.”

Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.), the chair of the House Ethics Committee, said that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) won’t influence whether his committee releases its report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who vacated his House seat last week after being tapped to become President-elect Trump’s attorney general.

Johnson has urged the Ethics Committee against releasing the Gaetz report, saying it would be “a terrible breach of protocol and tradition and the spirit of the rule,” since Gaetz is no longer a House member.

Guest said Monday that he and Johnson spoke at the end of last week, according to Politico.

“I appreciate Mike reaching out,” Guest told the outlet. “I don’t see it having an impact on what we as a committee ultimately decide.”

While Trump has nominated a number of controversial figures to his Cabinet, none has garnered more blowback than Gaetz, a far-right firebrand and fierce Trump loyalist.

At the Department of Justice, he would take over an agency that previously investigated him over allegations of sex trafficking. Though that probe did not lead to charges, the House Ethics Committee opened its own investigation into accusations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. Gaetz has denied allegations of wrongdoing.

Two women testified before the House Ethics Committee that Gaetz paid them to have sex, according to the attorney representing them.

Democrats and some Republicans have said the findings in the report must be released to senators weighing his nomination.

The Ethics Committee pushed back a meeting last week about the report, and is now set to meet Wednesday about it, a source told The Hill. Guest told Politico the report is not available to all members of the committee.

Johnson has quickly found his way into Trump’s inner orbit following this month’s election victory, and is trying to exert his influence to block the Gaetz report.

“I’m going to strongly request the Ethics Committee not issue the report, because that is not how we do things in the House and I think that would be a terrible precedent to set,” he told reporters on Friday.

In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Johnson said he had not spoken with Trump about the report.

“The president and I have literally not discussed one word about the ethics report, not once, and I’ve been with him quite a bit this week — between Washington and Mar-a-Lago and last night at Madison Square Garden,” Johnson said.

Allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct are complicating the paths of two of President-elect Trump’s most important nominees.

In the process, they threaten to put a new spotlight on Trump’s record with women.

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla) left Congress upon being nominated by Trump to serve as attorney general last week. His resignation ended an investigation into him by the House Ethics Committee, which was looking into sexual allegations, among others. That panel has no jurisdiction once a member leaves office. 

A previous criminal probe resulted in no charges against Gaetz.

However, the debate over whether the Ethics Committee’s report will be released has roiled the Capitol. Washington being Washington, many insiders expect the report to leak even if no official release is forthcoming.

Separately, Trump’s nominee to be secretary of Defense, former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, is under new scrutiny after it emerged that he paid a woman who had accused him of sexual assault as part of a nondisclosure agreement.

Both Gaetz and Hegseth vigorously deny any wrongdoing. 

An attorney for Hegseth told The Washington Post, which broke the story of his nondisclosure agreement, the complainant was “the aggressor in initiating sexual activity” during their 2017 encounter. 

To be sure, it is possible Gaetz and Hegseth get confirmed anyway — though several GOP senators have expressed misgivings about the former Florida congressman in particular.

There is no sign, at least so far, that Trump is having second thoughts. 

The presidents-elect’s communications director, Steven Cheung, told The New York Times on Sunday that Hegseth had “vigorously denied any and all accusations” and that the Trump transition team “look forward to his confirmation.”

An unnamed source told CNN, in relation to Gaetz, that Trump was “not going to back off. He’s all in.”

But that kind of defiance could pose some dangers to the president-elect, given his history.

Trump was held liable for the sexual abuse of writer E. Jean Carroll in a civil trial last year. Carroll has alleged Trump raped her in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. Trump was not held liable for rape at the trial.

Then there is Trump’s broader history, which includes hush money payments made to porn actor Stormy Daniels, who alleged she had a sexual encounter with Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in 2006.

Daniels acknowledges the encounter was consensual. But more than 20 women have accused Trump of inappropriate sexual conduct, albeit of varying degrees of severity.

Trump denies wrongdoing in all those cases and generally tends to portray the women involved as motivated by a desire for fame or money.

Democrats look at his picks of figures like Gaetz and Hegseth with disdain.

“Isn’t the expression that the fish rots from the head?” asked Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky. “It’s not a surprise that an administration helmed by an adjudicated sexual predator would have no problem with high-level Cabinet officials who also have issues around sexual misconduct.”

Roginsky, a prominent advocate for women who have been sexually harassed in the workplace, added, “For those of us who have been working for years around these issues, it is dispiriting to say the least. We just have to work all the harder.”

Conservative commentators see it very differently, of course. 

Former Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) told Fox News’s Laura Ingraham last week — before the issue of Hegseth’s nondisclosure agreement became public — that Hegseth would be “easily confirmed.”

“I dare any Republican senator to vote against him,” Chaffetz added. “That is not in their best interest.” 

Still, all of this comes on top of long-standing challenges for Trump and his party when it comes to female voters.

While Trump did better with women in this month’s election than many polls predicted — and shaved some points off the Democratic advantage with female voters compared to 2020 — women still lean away from him and his party.

Among all female voters, Vice President Harris had an 8-point advantage, according to exit polls. Harris won 53 percent of women and Trump 45 percent.

The differential was sharper among young women and unmarried women. 

Trump lost female voters younger than 30 by 24 points and lost unmarried women by 21 points. While the president-elect made progress with male voters of color, this was far less true for their female counterparts. Ninety-one percent of Black women voted for Harris, as did 60 percent of Latinas — figures that are broadly in line with recent history.

When it comes to confirmation proceedings in the Senate, two female GOP figures, Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) are among the most likely to vote against Trump’s more controversial nominees. 

Soon after Gaetz was announced as Trump’s pick to head the Department of Justice, Murkowski told reporters he was not “a serious nomination for attorney general,” while Collins declared herself “shocked” by the decision to push him forward.

There was more trouble for Trump’s nominee for attorney general on Monday, when a Florida attorney told ABC News two of his clients had testified to the House Ethics Committee that Gaetz had paid them for sex. 

Both those clients were adults at the time, but one of them, according to the attorney, also testified she had seen Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old. 

Regarding those allegations, a Trump transition spokesperson told ABC, “Matt Gaetz will be the next attorney general. He’s the right man for the job and will end the weaponization of our justice system.”

That’s the case for now. But Trump could incur some damage — and might even consider cutting his losses — if more allegations emerge.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.

Chris Wright, President-elect Trump’s pick to lead the Energy Department, has denied the well-established connection between climate change and extreme weather, claiming that storms are not getting more intense. 

“We have seen no increase in the frequency or intensity of hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts or floods despite endless fear-mongering of the media, politicians and activists,” Wright, the chairman and CEO of fracking company Liberty Energy, said in a video posted on LinkedIn last year. 

While he acknowledged that greenhouse gas emissions are contributing to global warming, he also said in the video that “there is no ‘climate crisis.’” 

He made similar comments during a House Financial Services hearing this year, saying, according to prepared remarks: “Although increased GHG emissions are generally associated with warmer temperatures, there remains significant scientific uncertainty around feedback effects. … But global temperature rise is—by itself—not the concern. In fact, millions of lives have been saved by reducing cold-related deaths.”

Climate change’s harmful impacts are recognized by a broad scientific consensus.

The United Nations’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says climate change is causing more frequent and intense heat waves and is likely increasing the frequency and intensity of heavy precipitation. It also says hurricanes are likely becoming more intense and that studies have shown that climate change increases rainfall during these storms. 

NASA says that more greenhouse gas emissions “will lead to more climate extremes and widespread damaging effects across our planet.”

The emissions released through the burning of fossil fuels are the primary driver of climate change. Wright has also sought to downplay other downsides of such fuels’ use. Notably, in 2019, he drank fracking fluid on camera as part of an effort to say that it’s not dangerous.

Fracking is a process that involves injecting rocks with a mix of water, sand and chemicals to extract oil and gas. Studies have linked it to water pollution, childhood cancers and earthquakes. 

“The biggest challenge with energy in the world today isn’t toxic chemicals in frac fluid, it’s the fact that so many people around the world don’t have access to energy,”  Wright said in the 2019 video. 

Trump has repeatedly downplayed climate change himself, falsely claiming it is a “hoax,” and staffed his first administration with a number of skeptics of climate change science. His incoming vice president JD Vance also expressed skepticism about the scientific consensus linking climate change and carbon emissions during his debate with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) last month.

In selecting Wright to lead the Energy Department, Trump praised him as a “leading technologist and entrepreneur” and cited his work not only in oil and gas but also in nuclear, solar and geothermal power. 

But Wright’s past comments downplaying the negative impacts of climate change and fracking have sparked concern from environmentalists and Democrats about the prospect of him heading up the agency, which oversees loans, grants and research for energy development, as well as the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal. 

“Chris Wright is a science-denying, self-serving, sanctimonious fracker who consistently puts the wants of energy producers over the needs of American energy consumers,” said Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) in a written statement. 

“Chris Wright is a climate denier who has profited off of polluting our communities and endangering our health and future. So, of course Donald Trump finds him fit to lead the Department of Energy, where he’ll be hell-bent on abusing his power to prolong the use of deadly fossil fuels and give his corporate polluter executive friends a rubber stamp for the unfettered buildout of LNG exports,” said Ben Jealous, executive director of the Sierra Club, in a written statement. 

Wright’s significant financial contributions to Trump’s reelection campaign are also garnering scrutiny. 

Over the summer, he made two contributions of $175,000 and $53,990 to the Trump 47 joint fundraising committee, which allocates funds to the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee (RNC) and, once the contribution limits are maxed out, to other political committees. The RNC received $41,300 from Wright through the joint fundraising committee in July.

Fellow Trump mega donor Harold Hamm, who gave $614,000 to the Trump 47 Committee as well as $200,000 to the pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc., recently told publication Hart Energy that Wright was his top choice for energy secretary. 

“Mega-donor and oil and gas billionaire Harold Hamm hand-picked Chris Wright for Trump’s Energy Department, thanks to boatloads of campaign cash from Hamm’s Big Oil buddies,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) in a post on the social platform X.

“Probably didn’t hurt that Wright himself gave $$$ to pro-Trump super PACs and the Republican National Committee after Trump solicited a fossil fuel quid pro quo at Mar-a-Lago. This cartoonish pay-to-play corruption is a preview of coming attractions for Trump’s Washington,” Whitehouse added. 

Whitehouse was referring to Trump’s solicitation of $1 billion in campaign cash from the oil and gas industry. The Washington Post reported that Trump said the donations would be a “deal” for oil executives because of the tax cuts and relaxed regulations he would introduce if reelected, but a source told The Hill that discussion was not framed as any sort of quid pro quo. 

Kedric Payne with the Campaign Legal Center said the donations don’t necessarily raise any ethical issues.

“It’s not unusual for a political appointee to also be a campaign contributor to the president,” said Payne, the group’s vice president, general counsel and senior ethics director. 

“When it appears that someone is paying to get access and influence in government, then that’s always going to diminish public trust in government,” he said, but added that it does not appear that any ethics rules were violated. 

However, he said that ethically, Wright will have to divest from any financial interests in the energy industry.

Virginia Canter, chief ethics counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, agreed that the appointment didn’t appear to raise legal issues, but she said, the donation “takes on, certainly, the appearance of ethical concerns.”

“There’s a question about, are they representing the public interest, or are they representing … the oil and gas industry,” she said. 

Wright is not the only Trump pick to contribute to the campaign this cycle. Elon Musk, who the president-elect tapped to lead a government efficiency commission, put more than $100 million toward Trump’s reelection. 

While Wright has received criticism from Democrats, it’s not clear whether their concerns will make a difference in terms of his confirmation prospects. With Republicans expected to hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, at least four Republicans would have to oppose his confirmation in order to block him.

Other nominees like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Matt Gaetz are considered to be much more controversial.

Taylor Giorno contributed. 

President-elect Trump is expanding his search to lead the Treasury Department as the jockeying over who will fill the key economic role has spilled into public view.

Investor Scott Bessent appeared to be the front-runner for the role and has visited Mar-a-Lago multiple times in recent weeks, but billionaire Elon Musk, who has frequently been by Trump’s side since Election Day, advocated over the weekend for Howard Lutnick, the Cantor Fitzgerald head who is co-leading Trump’s transition team.

The search has since expanded beyond those two names.

A source close to the transition confirmed to The Hill that Trump was also considering Apollo Global Management co-founder Marc Rowan and former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh for the job.

Trump’s eventual picks for his economic team will be tasked with implementing key campaign promises, such as extending tax cuts set to expire next year and imposing tariffs on imports that Trump made central to his economic pitch to voters, despite concerns from economists.

“All these guys will be OK with tax cuts and reassuring the markets,” said one source close to the transition. “But he wants somebody that is a true believer in what he thinks on tariffs, and…there’s no proof for these people being pro-tariff 18 months ago or 36 months ago.”

The jockeying for Treasury secretary had largely played out behind the scenes until this weekend, when Musk posted on X that Bessent would be a “business-as-usual” choice.

“Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change one way or another,” Musk wrote, encouraging others to weigh in with their opinions.

Trump has yet to publicly announce any of his choices for key economic positions, which include Treasury secretary, Commerce secretary, head of the National Economic Council and U.S. Trade Representative.

Multiple sources close to Trump’s orbit said Linda McMahon is the front-runner to lead the Commerce Department. McMahon previously led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term and is a co-chair of his transition effort.

Robert Lighthizer, who served as Trump’s trade representative during his first term and is a staunch tariff advocate, is also in the mix for a job in the upcoming administration, though the exact role is still unclear.

“President-Elect Trump is making decisions on who will serve in his second Administration. Those decisions will continue to be announced by him when they are made,” Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the transition, said in a statement.

Trump on the campaign trail vowed to extend the individual tax cuts that were part of the legislation he signed in 2017, but that are set to expire in 2025. He also said he would push to lower the corporate tax rate from 21 percent, which was established in the 2017 law.

Trump also proposed a flurry of other tax breaks, including on tipped wages, Social Security benefits and overtime wages. His economic team will need to work closely with GOP majorities in the House and Senate to advance a tax cut bill.

Trump has also for months promised to impose blanket tariffs on all imports, a plan economists have warned could spike the cost of goods in the U.S. and increase costs for families. But Trump has shrugged off those concerns, claiming the tariffs will cause more companies to do business inside the U.S.

Trump has also said he would seek to use tariffs as leverage in negotiations with other countries. He told supporters earlier this month that he would place a minimum 25 percent tariff on all imports from Mexico, which is the top trade partner with the U.S., unless the Mexican government took action to curb migration at the southern border.

Billionaire Elon Musk and lawyer Boris Epshteyn, two prominent figures in President-elect Trump’s circle, reportedly are butting heads over his Cabinet picks.  

Musk, a major campaign donor who has been a regular by the president-elect’s side of late, has been tapped to lead a effort to make the government more efficient. Epshteyn is a lawyer and longtime Trump strategist.

According to an Axios report early Monday, a “heated discussion” between Musk and Epshteyn took place at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort last Wednesday. Three sources told Axios of a “massive blowup,” which included Musk accusing Epshteyn of leaking details personnel picks to the media. Epshteyn reportedly denied that claim.

Musk, according to the report, is concerned about Epshteyn’s influence in Trump’s decisionmaking process with Cabinet picks. Epshteyn advocated for Trump’s legal picks announced last week, including the nomination of then-Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) for attorney general, a move that has been met with backlash and confusion from many Republicans.  

Trump’s criminal defense attorneys, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, were appointed to top Justice Department posts. He also plans to nominate D. John Sauer, an appellate attorney who argued Trump’s presidential immunity case at the Supreme Court earlier this year, as solicitor general. All of these positions would serve under Gaetz’s watch as attorney general. 

Musk has pushed for Cabinet picks as well, specifically for Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, as Treasury Secretary over Key Square Group founder Scott Bessent. 

Musk is expected to spearhead the new “Department of Government Efficiency” alongside entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

The Hill has reached out to Trump’s team for comment.  

Former national security adviser John Bolton said that Russia and China should feel “a lot of relief” if former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii) is confirmed as President-elect Trump’s choice for director of national intelligence.

“She’s not capable of doing it,” Bolton said Sunday on CNN. “Her judgment is nonexistent and the idea that somehow she would be put in charge of this critical function should be giving the our adversaries in Moscow and Beijing a lot of relief.”

Trump announced last week that Gabbard, a former Democrat who has been accused of spreading Russian talking points, is his pick for director of national intelligence.

If she were to be confirmed by the Senate, Gabbard would oversee an agency that helps coordinate among all U.S. intelligence agencies and is responsible for compiling the President’s Daily Brief, which informs the commander in chief’s national security decisions.

Lawmakers and national security experts have expressed shock and concern over Trump’s nomination. Gabbard had expressed beliefs in opposition to U.S. intelligence, particularly about the Russia-Ukraine war.

She’s shared content that suggests the U.S. was involved in Ukraine developing biological weapons, a Russian narrative.

Bolton previously argued there should be an FBI investigation into Gabbard before she appears before the Senate for confirmation.

On Sunday, he said if she is confirmed by the Senate, it’s a “very serious mistake.”

“She has zero experience dealing with the intelligence community,” he said, adding “She doesn’t have the slightest idea what the job involves.”

Bolton said just because Trump won the election, it is “no excuse” for the Senate to “abandon its constitutional function.”

“I think there will be enough Republicans, maybe not a majority, but enough to block the nomination, and if not, we’re in deep trouble,” Bolton said.

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Monday that former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii), now a Republican and President-elect Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, is “a national security threat” to the United States.

“So, to have Tulsi Gabbard there now, who has basically said good things about [Syrian President Bashar Assad], secretly gone over to visit him, good things about [Russian President Vladimir Putin], shows to me that that’s a national security threat to the United States of America, and I think under ordinary circumstances, if you go through regular security screening, she would not pass the test to receive classified documents,” Meeks told MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera.

Trump announced last week that he had selected Gabbard to be director of national intelligence in his next administration.

“I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community, championing our Constitutional Rights, and securing Peace through Strength. Tulsi will make us all proud!” Trump said in a statement at the time.

Gabbard has in the past shared content implying that the U.S. was involved in making biological weapons in Ukraine, perpetuating a narrative from Moscow. She also met in 2017 with Assad, who has been accused of the use of chemical weapons on Syrian civilians.

“She was … on the Foreign Affairs Committee, when she secretly went over to visit Assad. … She made … public statements about Russia,” Meeks said of Gabbard on Monday. “And I think that, you know, unfortunately it does follow what Donald Trump has done and what Donald Trump has said.”

“Because Donald Trump … said he trusted Russian intelligence above the United States intelligence,” Meeks added.

Multiple Democrats, including Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), a former CIA officer, have spoken out against Gabbard as Trump’s choice for director of national intelligence.

“As a former CIA case officer, I saw the men and women of the U.S. intelligence community put their lives on the line every day for this country — and I am appalled at the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard to lead DNI,” Spanberger wrote on the social platform X last week.

The Hill has reached out to the Trump transition team for comment.

President Biden has sent Congress an emergency funding request for roughly $100 billion to help with recovery after natural disasters, including the recent Hurricanes Helene and Milton in the Southeast, battered communities nationwide and depleted key programs.

“From rebuilding homes and reopening critical infrastructure, such as schools and roads — to supporting the Nation’s farmers and ranchers and ensuring access to healthcare services — impacted communities await your response.  There can be no delay,” Biden wrote in a letter to the House Speaker. 

“I urge the Congress to act quickly to pass a supplemental funding package to assist communities impacted by these hurricanes — and every other disaster since the Congress last passed a comprehensive disaster package in 2022 — so that the people, families, businesses, and communities affected have the support they need to respond, recover, and rebuild responsibly,” the president said. 

The request includes $40 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Disaster Relief Fund (DRF). Without that, Biden said, the DRF will face a shortfall this fiscal year, impacting FEMA’s ability to aid disaster survivors and recovery efforts. 

The White House is also asking for emergency funding for more than a dozen other agencies to support health services, housing, transportation and infrastructure, among other areas. 

Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget, warned in a memo on Monday that various federal agencies, including the Small Business Administration and the Department of Agriculture, are running low on funds after the recent storms. Several of those agencies have written to Congress in recent weeks about “the need to replenish key disaster response programs and fund long term recovery for communities suffering since 2022,” she said.

The Department of Agriculture would get $24 billion to help impacted farmers, the Department of Housing and Urban Development would get $12 billion for its Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery program and the Small Business Administration would get $2 million to replenish its disaster loan program.

In addition to helping respond to the devastation wrought by Helene and Milton this fall — which together killed hundreds of people and caused billions in damage — the funds would also help ongoing recovery efforts after last year’s fires in Maui and this spring’s tornadoes in Mississippi, Iowa and Oklahoma.

The Biden administration has made multiple requests for more disaster aid since 2022, Young noted.

Biden in his letter pointed to Congress’s bipartisan action in the wake of other recent natural disasters, including more than $120 billion provided after Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria in 2017. 

“Just as the Congress acted then, it is our sworn duty now to deliver the necessary resources to ensure that everyone in communities reeling from Hurricanes Helene and Milton — and those still recovering from previous disasters — have the Federal resources they need and deserve,” Biden said. 

Lawmakers will now decide how to take up the request. Congress faces a Dec. 20 deadline to pass a government funding bill and avert a shutdown, and it’s possible the disaster relief funds will be packaged into that legislation.

In January, the GOP will take a trifecta of control over the House, Senate and the White House as President-elect Trump assumes the Oval Office.