Senate Takes First Step In Moving Forward With Bipartisan Bill To Avert Shutdown, Includes $6 Billion In New Disaster Relief Funding Following Calls From Schatz

WASHINGTON – Following calls from U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) for additional disaster relief funding for Maui and other communities impacted by disasters, Senate leaders released a bipartisan short-term spending bill that includes $6 billion in supplemental funding to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund. The bill would avert a government shutdown and keep the government funded through November 17.

“This bill is an important first step in bringing more federal disaster relief funding to Maui. We still have more work to do to get this through Congress and signed into law, but this bipartisan bill would avert a government shutdown and keep federal relief dollars flowing to Hawai‘i,” said Senator Schatz, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Following the Maui fires, Schatz has led efforts to deliver additional federal disaster relief funding to Hawai‘i. Schatz worked with Senate leaders, his colleagues in the Hawai‘i delegation, and with his bipartisan colleagues on the Senate Appropriations Committee to include the new money in the short-term spending bill.

In addition to funding disaster relief, the bill would also:

• Continue support for Ukraine at a pivotal moment;
• Prevent critical health statutes from lapsing to ensure funding for community health centers and teaching health centers does not expire;
• Extend the Federal Aviation Administration’s authorities through the end of the calendar year;
• Ensure federal wildland firefighters will not see a pay cut; and
• Ensure the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) will continue to be able to serve the nearly 7 million women and children who rely on it.

The bill is expected to be considered by the Senate and the House in the coming days, ahead of the September 30 funding deadline.  

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