WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Sunday will survey the devastation inflicted on Florida's Gulf Coast by Hurricane Milton as he urges Congress to approve additional emergency disaster funding. Vice President Kamala Harris will spend a second day in North Carolina, hard-hit by Hurricane Helene, to attend a Black church and hold a campaign rally.
Biden's visit to the St. Petersburg area offers him another chance to press House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., for congressional approval of more aid money before the Nov. 5 election. Johnson has said the issue will be dealt with after then.
“I think Speaker Johnson is going to get the message that he’s got to step up, particularly for small businesses,” Biden told reporters as he and Harris met with aides on Friday to discuss the federal response to Hurricanes Milton and Helene. Biden and Johnson have yet to discuss the matter directly.
In Florida, Biden was set to announce $612 million for six Department of Energy projects in areas affected by the hurricanes to improve the resilience of the region’s electric grid, the White House said. The funding includes $94 million for two projects in Florida: $47 million for Gainesville Regional Utilities and $47 million for Switched Source to partner with Florida Power and Light.
Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, visited Raleigh on Saturday to meet with Black elected and religious leaders and help volunteers package personal care items for delivery to victims of Helene in the western part of the state.
She was spending Sunday in Greenville, with plans to speak during a church service as part of her campaign's “Souls to the Polls” effort to help turn out Black churchgoers before Election Day. She was also scheduled to hold a rally to talk about her economic plans and highlight Thursday's start of early voting in the state, her campaign said.
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will spend the coming week campaigning in the competitive states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina, according to a Harris campaign official who was not authorized to publicly discuss details not yet made public and spoke on condition of anonymity.
With less than four weeks to go before Election Day, the hurricanes have added another dimension to the closely contested presidential race.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said the Biden administration’s storm response had been lacking, particularly in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. Biden and Harris have hammered Trump for promoting falsehoods about the federal response.
Trump made a series of false claims after Helene struck in late September, including incorrectly saying that the federal government is intentionally withholding aid to Republican disaster victims. He also falsely claimed the Federal Emergency Management Agency had run out of money because all of it had gone to programs for immigrants in the country illegally.
Biden said Trump was “not singularly" to blame for the spread of false claims in recent weeks but that he has the "biggest mouth.”
The president is pressing for swift action by Congress to make sure the Small Business Administration and FEMA have the money they need to get through hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30 in the Atlantic. He said Friday that Milton alone had caused an estimated $50 billion in damages.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said last week that FEMA will be able to meet “immediate needs” caused by the two storms. But he warned in the aftermath of Helene that the agency does not have enough funding to make it through the hurricane season.
But Johnson has pushed back, saying the agencies have enough money for the time being and that lawmakers will address the funding issue during the lame-duck session after the election.
Also percolating in the background are tensions between Harris and Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla. As Helene barreled toward Florida, the two traded accusations that the other was trying to politicize the federal storm response.
Harris' office last week suggested that DeSantis was dodging her phone calls. DeSantis responded that he was unaware she had called and he grumbled that she hadn't been involved in the federal government's response before she became the Democratic nominee.
Biden, for his part, said he hoped to see DeSantis on Sunday, if the governor's schedule permitted.
“He’s been very cooperative,” Biden said about DeSantis. He added, “We got on very, very well.”
DeSantis said Saturday that he had no details about the president's visit.
Biden was scheduled to survey damage during an aerial tour between Tampa and St. Pete Beach, where he will be briefed on the storm by federal, state and local officials. He also will residents and first responders.
Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida as a Category 3 storm on Wednesday evening. At least 10 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of residents remain without power.
Officials say the toll could have been worse if not for widespread evacuations. The still-fresh devastation wrought by Helene just two weeks earlier probably helped compel many people to flee.
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Boak reported from Raleigh, North Carolina.
