Biden Urges Congress to Replenish Disaster Relief Funds Quickly

President Biden urged members of Congress on Friday to provide emergency funding for the Small Business Administration, saying the agency is critically low on money needed to help people in communities devastated by Hurricane Helene.

In a late-night letter addressed to the leadership of Congress, Mr. Biden wrote that the S.B.A.’s disaster relief program, which supports small-business owners in recovering from the storm, will run out of money in weeks, before Congress is set to reconvene.

“The Congress must act to restore this funding,” he wrote.

The president’s letter comes just days after Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, said he saw no need for Congress to return from its recess, which will continue through at least Election Day in early November.

“We wouldn’t even conceivably have the request ready before we get back in November,” Mr. Johnson said in an interview on Wednesday. “There’s no necessity for Congress to come back.”

Mr. Johnson and other Republicans have argued that the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other parts of the government have enough money in the short term. They have also said it would take weeks to assess the longer-term needs of those in the path of the hurricane, which can be addressed after the election.

Mr. Biden challenged that assertion in the letter Friday night. He warned that although FEMA, for example, has “the resources needed for the immediate emergency response phase,” the agency “would be required to forgo longer-term recovery activities in favor of meeting urgent needs” without more funding soon.

He did not request a specific amount of money from Congress, and he did not explicitly call on members of the House and Senate to return immediately.

But the president said it