As Hurricane Helene bore down on Florida’s Panhandle on Thursday, lawmakers in Washington prepared to leave town without allocating additional money to help small businesses recover from major storms.
A bipartisan continuing resolution passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday by a 341-82 vote and the U.S. Senate by 78-18. A signature from President Joe Biden will keep federal agencies open through Dec. 20, providing funding to various federal programs, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
But among the vast array of federal storm recovery programs designed to help businesses regain their financial footing, the Small Business Administration received only $40 million for maintaining operations, not for additional money to fund disaster loan programs to help damaged small businesses get back on their feet.
The agency, in a statement late Thursday to the South Florida Sun Sentinel, said that while the SBA is not devoid of resources, its ability to fund loans after Hurricane Helene could quickly diminish.
“Despite the SBA and the White House’s longstanding request for additional disaster loan funding, Congressional Republicans refused to include any disaster relief funding in the stopgap funding bill,” an agency spokesperson said. “The SBA will provide disaster loan assistance for as long as possible, but depending on the impact of Hurricane Helene, it is possible that funds may be depleted and the agency may not be able to meet the needs of all disaster survivors. With the growing trend of natural disasters, the need for new funding becomes increasingly urgent.”
Another bid for new money
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, called the $40 million allocation “woefully insufficient to meet our communities’ needs for the rest of the year.”
“As Hurricane Helene brings a major catastrophic storm to our state, the urgency couldn’t be clearer,” she said in a statement to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “Our small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy, and in the aftermath of a storm like this, they’ll need every possible resource to recover. I am pushing hard for a full emergency supplemental because we cannot leave Florida’s businesses and communities vulnerable when they’ll need this crucial lifeline the most.”
The congresswoman added that Biden has asked Congress “to replenish the Disaster Relief Fund and provide a $700 million supplemental for the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program. Unfortunately, Speaker (Mike) Johnson and House Republicans have spent the summer neglecting these essential priorities, leaving our communities at risk.”
Candace Redwine surveys the damage after about 3 feet of water inundated her Spiceman Kitchen store in Tarpon Springs when Hurricane Helene passed offshore. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
A ‘loss’ for Democrats?
In a sign that even storm relief funding is not immune to hardball party politics on Capitol Hill, a Republican staff memo that circulated among legislative leaders Wednesday listed the omission of “Emergency designated funding for disasters” as one of the “wins” the GOP scored this week during the Continuing Resolution process.
“House Republicans held the line on what we would accept in a CR,” according to a Wednesday staff email distributed ahead of the vote to Republican legislative leaders. “Due to Speaker Johnson’s leadership, none of the Democrats’ priorities …. were included in the narrow CR the House will consider today.”
After Hurricane Helene pounded the Florida Gulf Coast late Thursday and moved on to Georgia and other states, the FloridaCommerce economic development agency circulated an online survey of small businesses statewide in an effort to assess the damages. The survey included questions about whether business owners would require assistance from SBA programs.
The state survey can be accessed by visiting FloridaDisaster.Biz. The agency also is operating a hotline for private sector businesses at 850-815-4925 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Assistance via email can be obtained from ESF18@em.myFlorida.com.
In June, South Florida business operators affected by severe rainstorm flooding that washed across the region were eligible to apply for low-interest SBA disaster loans. The agency acted after receiving a written request from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to make an emergency declaration, which covered Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties, along with Collier, Hendry and Monroe counties.
The loan programs allowed businesses and private nonprofit organizations to borrow money to fund repairs or to replace damaged or destroyed real estate, machinery and equipment, inventory, and other business assets.
Loans of up to $500,000 were also available to homeowners to repair or replace damaged real estate. Homeowners and renters are eligible for loans of up to $100,000 to repair or replace damaged personal property. Interest rates were as low as 4% for businesses, 3.25% for nonprofit organizations and 2.688% for homeowners and renters, with terms of up to 30 years.
Bill Herrle, executive director of the Florida arm of the National Federation of Independent Business, a national advocacy group, said Congress is more likely to act after a storm occurs.
“From our experience, Congress typically acts after a major disaster on these matters, not before,” he said in a text from his office in Tallahassee, where he was preparing for Helene’s arrival. “That nothing is in place now is not a small business owner’s greatest concern. From my experience small business owners’ biggest challenge post disaster is return of workforce and most important, return of customers.”