The White House News

President Biden will send Congress an extensive emergency funding request in the coming days, the White House said Monday, as administration officials called on Congress to approve more money following a wave of natural disasters.

Various agencies, including the Small Business Administration, the Department of Agriculture and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), are running low on funding following Hurricane Helene, Hurricane Milton and other severe storms, Budget director Shalanda Young wrote in a memo to interested parties.

“To ensure these communities get comprehensive recovery assistance, our Administration has made multiple requests to Congress outlining the need for emergency funding to address these disasters, and detailing the consequences of failing to deliver this aid. To date, Congress has yet to act,” Young wrote, noting lawmakers last passed a comprehensive disaster aid package in December, 2022.

Young wrote that FEMA needs additional funding so it can provide assistance to repair housing, rebuild infrastructure and work to prevent damage in future storms.

Additionally, the Small Business Administration is managing 36 disasters across 24 states, Young wrote, and a lack of funding could prevent it from providing loans to businesses in need. 

The Department of Agriculture needs additional funding to assist rural communities, Young added, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development requires more money for its grant programs.

“In the coming days, the Biden-Harris Administration will send to Congress a comprehensive disaster package,” Young wrote. “We look forward to working with Congress to quickly pass emergency funding so the Federal Government can meet its obligations to the American people.”

Hurricane Helene tore through Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas in September, killing more than 200 people and causing more than $50 billion in damage in North Carolina alone. Hurricane Milton hit Florida in early October, killing more than 30 people and causing billions more in damage.

Congress must pass a government funding bill before Dec. 20 to avert a shutdown. The White House is expected to push lawmakers to include disaster relief funds in that legislation.

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, co-hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” said Monday they had traveled to the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago estate late last week to talk to Donald Trump about unifying the country and toning down political rhetoric.

Brzezinski told the program’s audience on Monday it was the first time the two hosts, who are married, had met with Trump face-to-face in seven years.

“We didn’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues and we told him so,” Scarborough said, reading from a script in the teleprompter.

“What we did agree on, was to restart communications,” Brzezinski added, noting the couple had not spoken to Trump since early in 2020 outside of a personal call Scarborough placed to Trump the morning after an attempt on his life at a rally over the summer.

“In this meeting, he was upbeat, cheerful and he seemed interested in finding common ground on some of the most divisive issues,” Brzezinski said.

“For those asking why we would go speak with the president-elect during such fraught times, especially between us,” she continued. “I guess I would ask back, why wouldn’t we?”

Scarborough said a close ally of the former president suggested to him after their meeting that because Trump is not seeking another term after 2024, “now could be the time to get to work.”

Top Democrats, who often appear on Scarborough’s show, have also told him, he said: “We are willing to work with the former president, if he’s willing to work with us.”

Scarborough and Brzezinski for years have been among Trump’s most vocal critics on cable news. They host a program that Trump has clearly watched, and that counts President Biden as a viewer.

“Don’t be mistaken, we’re not here to defend or normalize Donald Trump,” Scarborough told his audience on Monday. “We’re here to report on him and to hopefully provide you insights and better equip all of us to understand these deeply unsettling times.”

Tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who accepted a role alongside Elon Musk in President-elect Trump’s incoming administration to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), said “certain agencies” are expected to be “deleted outright.”

“We expect mass reductions,” said during an appearance on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo. “We expect certain agencies to be deleted outright. We expect mass reductions in force in areas of the federal government that are bloated.”

Ramaswamy also said “massive cuts” are expected among federal contractors “and others who are overbilling the federal government.”

“I think people will be surprised by, I think, how quickly we’re able to move with some of those changes, given the legal backdrop the Supreme Court has given us,” he added.

The biotech entrepreneur, who ran in the Republican presidential primary but dropped his bid at the beginning of this year, described a “historic opportunity,” noting that “if we don’t downsize the federal government now, it’s never going to happen in the future as well.”

“We’re not actually going to squander this. But I think part of the key is to move quickly, to move effectively,” he added.

Last week Ramaswamy, along with Musk, were announced as heads of DOGE, which Trump says will aim to “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures,” as well as restructure federal agencies.

Ramaswamy became one of Trump’s most vocal allies in the past year and hinted at his interest in a position. He even appeared on the trail supporting the president-elect near the end of the race.