Former President Donald Trump on Monday said he would be in favor of Congress returning early from recess to pass additional aid following Hurricane Helene. 

“I would be in favor of it, yeah. This is a very unusual situation,” Trump told reporters in Asheville, North Carolina, where he toured storm damage. 

“In theory [FEMA is] supposed to have it, but they spent a lot of money on bringing illegal migrants, people that came into our country illegally, and taking them in,” Trump said, calling the agency’s response to the storm damage “a disgrace.” 

Congress left in September for recess, and the House and Senate aren’t expected to return until Nov. 12. Read Full Story

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Senate Republicans are pumping the brakes on a year-end omnibus spending package after previously thinking they would be able to squeeze House Speaker Mike Johnson into bringing a trillion-dollar package to the House floor if it was paired with federal disaster relief. 

But the appetite among Senate Republicans for jamming Johnson with a huge spending bill is fading. One Senate Republican source said that “the bandwidth is not there,” but cautioned that political conditions could change depending on the presidential election’s outcome. Read Full Story

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Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee pressed Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to explain spending priorities on disaster relief and illegal immigration through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In a letter to Mayorkas last week, lawmakers decried the agency’s programs focused specifically on illegal immigrants in light of damage wrought by recent hurricanes in the southeastern U.S. — particularly since Mayorkas recently told the media the agency “does not have the funds, to make it through the [hurricane] season.” Read Full Story

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