Trump Wants To Use FEMA Funds For Unemployment Benefits During Hurricane Season

WLRN Public Media | By Alex Daugherty

Published August 17, 2020 at 7:41 AM EDT

FILE- In this Oct. 14, 2018 file photo, Candace Phillips sifts through what was her third-floor bedroom while returning to her damaged home in Mexico Beach, Fla., in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael. The most powerful hurricane to hit the continental U.S. in nearly 50 years, Hurricane Michael in October 2018 struck as a Category 5, killing dozens of people.

As 2020’s record-setting hurricane season enters its most active phase, President Donald Trump wants to take billions of dollars away from hurricane-related disaster relief to provide expanded unemployment benefits due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last weekend, Trump announced a series of executive orders after congressional leaders and the White House could not agree to another coronavirus relief bill that would have likely expanded federal unemployment benefits.

One of the orders would allow the president to take up to $44 billion in disaster relief funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to pay for COVID-related unemployment claims. The order would leave $25 billion in FEMA’s disaster relief fund if all the unemployment money is spent, down from the $68.4 billion that is currently in the fund as of July 31.

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