Biden makes formal plea to Congress for disaster loan funds

WASHINGTON — In a late Friday night missive to congressional leaders, President Joe Biden wrote that the Small Business Administration’s disaster loan program is expected to run out of funding before Congress reconvenes after the November elections.

The SBA needs $1.6 billion to keep up with thousands of new applications coming in each day for aid after Hurricane Helene tore through the Southeast late last week, an administration official said late Friday.

Even before the hurricane hit, the White House anticipated the need and called on Congress to add additional funding to the stopgap appropriations law running through Dec. 20. Republican leaders sought to keep the extension as “clean” as possible and declined to include the extra SBA funding, though they agreed to a provision freeing up nearly $20.3 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund.

The SBA situation is different from that of FEMA, which currently has enough money to get through the end of this year, Biden wrote.

“While FEMA has the resources needed for the immediate emergency response phase, at least one other agency does not,” the president wrote in his letter to Hill leaders. “Most urgently, the Small Business Administration’s … disaster loan program will run out of funding in a matter of weeks and well before the Congress is planning to reconvene.”

SBA loans are currently available to hurricane victims in six affected states: Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. The program makes loans of up to $2 million available to businesses for the repair or replacement of real estate, inventories, machinery, equipment and all other physical losses. Homeowners can receive up to $500,000 for repairs and replacement of real estate, and individuals can get up to $100,000 for personal property losses, such as motor vehicles.

Loan terms are for a maximum of 30 years, though businesses with credit available elsewhere are capped at 7-year terms. Interest rates vary depending on the type of claim, and are lower for those without other available credit — the current rate for Helene-related homeowner losses without other forms of credit is a little more than 2.8%.

Biden said while SBA was the most immediate issue, as soon as lawmakers return to Washington on Nov. 12 they should take up his previous requests for supplemental disaster aid, including a $23.5 billion request sent up in October 2023 and another $4 billion in June of this year, mostly for Francis Scott Key Bridge repair in Baltimore.

“As the Congress heeds the call to assist the communities across the Nation recovering from Hurricane Helene, it must remember that many other communities are also in urgent need of disaster assistance,” Biden wrote Friday night.

There was no immediate response from congressional leaders, who had previously all but ruled out calling lawmakers back from the campaign trail early to vote on hurricane relief.

It’s possible for Congress to clear a one-off SBA aid package without members returning for roll call votes, but that would require unanimous consent in the Senate and a voice vote in the House. That’s what happened in early September 2005 after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and lawmakers rushed through $10.5 billion in assistance.