Hawaii lawmakers say Congress should replenish disaster relief fund to help Maui and others recover

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii’s congressional representatives on Wednesday said the nation’s disaster relief fund needs to be replenished so the U.S. government can continue to help survivors of Maui’s deadly wildfires and other disasters around the country.

U.S. Rep. Ed Case, a Democrat from Hawaii, called on Congress to appropriate $20.9 billion to the fund. Case, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, said he hopes Congress will allocate the funding by the Sept. 30 end of the current fiscal year.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency uses the fund to help communities after hurricanes, wildfires and other disasters.

“We’ve had a lot of disasters, not just Maui — across the country. We’ve had a lot of draws on that,” Case said at a field hearing of a House congressional oversight and accountability subcommittee.

The fund was “now exhausted and we’re down to the last limits of it,” Case said, noting the depleted balance prompted FEMA on Aug. 7 to began using the fund to address immediate needs only.

Bob Fenton, the administrator for the FEMA region that includes Hawaii, said that means the agency was prioritizing life saving and life-sustaining disaster response and was not putting money toward longer-term work.

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