When congressional leaders decided not to call lawmakers back from the campaign trail for an emergency session to fund relief and rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Helene, they cited practical considerations.
Speaker Mike Johnson and others said the government had sufficient funds to get through the critical next few weeks and receive a definitive assessment of need before dealing with the spending issues after Nov. 5.
But there was another good reason to hold off: Congressional struggles over disaster funding, particularly with an election right around the corner, can be political disasters of their own.
From feuding over how to pay for Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to splits over recovery funds after Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012 to a G.O.P. blockade of money for Western wildfires and hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico in 2019, disaster packages have divided Republicans and left other lawmakers and the public accusing them of ignoring the plight of suffering Americans.
Even though Helene’s wrath was concentrated in Republican-dominated Southern states, it is likely that the push for aid would have left some conservatives calling for cuts to offset new spending — sparking a fight over what, if anything, needed to be pared back. The legislative push for a huge surge in funding, which will now come after the election, could have also opened the door to a measure with an eye-popping price tag at a time when Republicans are trying to assure voters that they remain the party of fiscal restraint.
It is a recipe for political trouble just weeks before a too-close-to-call battle for Congress. The situation could provide Democrats with an opportunity to paint Republicans as hypocrites for demanding federal relief for their home states and districts when they have opposed spending bill after spending bill over the past two years.
“It’s simply too risky for Republicans to bring back members to vote on a package of spending that they haven’t even seen yet, right before the election,” said John Feehery, a Republican strategist and former top House leadership aide. “A partisan fight would be a disaster, but a bipartisan spendathon could deflate the base.”
Calamitous storms have long had political ramifications for the White House. Who can forget the backlash to President George W. Bush’s assessment in 2005 that his FEMA director was doing a “heck of a job” while New Orleans was inundated after Hurricane Katrina?
Now Donald J. Trump and his allies are trying to make Hurricane Helene partisan by criticizing the Biden administration for its response despite bipartisan praise for the White House’s handling of the storm. Mr. Trump also faced scrutiny for his handling of disasters when he was in the White House.
Katrina posed complications for congressional Republicans in 2005 as they faced a growing challenge to their majority from Democrats with a midterm election around the corner. Top Republicans promised to reach deep into the Treasury to get the Gulf of Mexico region back on its feet, but ran into internal resistance from their own colleagues in a politically charged spectacle.
Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, called on Congress to pare down waste and spending in other parts of the government to pay for at least some of the rebuilding. He was joined in the effort by an obscure Republican congressman from Indiana.
“Congress must do everything the American people expect us to do to meet the needs of families and communities affected by Katrina,” said Representative Mike Pence, later to become vice president under Mr. Trump. “But we must not let Katrina break the bank for our children and grandchildren.”
Congress ultimately overwhelmingly cleared Katrina aid, but disaster funding continued to splinter Republicans. Their response to the storm was a significant factor in the loss of both the House and the Senate in 2006.
The Katrina funding also played into a major dispute in 2012 over relief for states hit by Hurricane Sandy, remembered politically for the tableau of Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, a Republican, praising President Barack Obama for his help as he toured storm damage just before the presidential election.
Congressional Republicans and Democrats from New Jersey and New York clamored for Congress’s help but encountered stiff opposition from Republicans who claimed the aid package was stuffed with extraneous pork provisions for other states.
Ultimately, more than $51 billion in relief funding was approved, but dozens of House Republicans opposed it after earlier voting for the Katrina money. That prompted bitter accusations that Republicans did not want to provide the same help to blue states as they did to red ones.
“It is unfortunate that we had to fight so hard to be treated the same as every other state has been treated,” Peter T. King, then a Republican representative from New York, said at the time.
In 2019, far-right House Republicans temporarily blocked more than $19 billion to fund recovery efforts in Puerto Rico after months of negotiating over aid to the island, fueling charges by Democrats that they were being heartless in delaying the help.
With the next election just weeks away, Republican leaders dodged such infighting by keeping lawmakers on the campaign trail rather than calling them back to the Capitol to bicker over funding. And while those who pressed Congress to return have not been successful, they can at least assure constituents they tried.
Securing the money should be easier after the election. But the amounts needed are likely to be enormous given the damage, and the speaker is already warning that Congress will need to “prioritize” spending because of the $35 trillion federal debt. That approach might not go over well with lawmakers of both parties who want relief flowing to communities devastated by Helene with no strings attached.
Whatever the conflict to come, veterans of past spending fights argue that it will be less painful to confront after Americans vote.
“Better to do it in the lame duck,” Mr. Feehery said. “Better to be safe than sorry.”
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