Congress included $29 billion for the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund in a December 2024 supplemental funding bill.

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Congress passed a $29 billion supplemental funding bill for the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund in December 2024, three months after Hurricane Helene struck. This represented emergency funding outside the normal annual appropriations process. However, supplemental bills require presidential signature and can't be spent until the Office of Management and Budget apportions the money to FEMA. By October 2025, much of this $29 billion was already committed to ongoing disasters nationwide—wildfires in California, floods in the Midwest, tornado recovery in the South—leaving the Disaster Relief Fund balance at just $1.4 billion for new claims. The shutdown prevented Congress from passing another supplemental to replenish the fund.

Congress included $29 billion for the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund in a December 2024 supplemental funding bill.

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