ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. — Just days away from the start of another hurricane season, Senator Rick Scott (R-Florida) was joined by local, state and federal officials to urge Floridians to heed warnings and have a plan in place ahead of any storms.
“The odds are somewhere in our state we're going to have a landfall, so my goal is with everybody up here is to get ready,” Scott said at a press conference in St. Pete Beach Tuesday. “We want people to be safe. We're gonna do everything we can, but you got to do your part."
They’re hoping that message gets through to everyone, especially those living in coastal areas of the state like Pinellas County, where an ongoing stalemate between the county and the Army Corps of Engineers has left beach renourishment projects without a path forward.
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“Please, if you live on the barrier islands take [hurricane preps] seriously, because we don't have the sand on the shoreline to protect the property and the infrastructure at this time,” Pinellas County Commission Chair Kathleen Peters said.
Peters and U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna( R- Seminole) say discussions with the Army Corps of Engineers aimed at remedying the situation are ongoing.
“Locally we've had a massive issue with the Army Corps, the Senator has been really helpful, but you know that that's at the direction of federal and that comes from Biden's administration,” Luna said.
At the same time, Sen. Scott voiced concerns with another federal agency, FEMA, as a recent report shows its Disaster Relief Funding hitting a shortfall by August, ahead of peak hurricane season.
A few days ago, Scott and fellow Sen. Marco Rubio wrote a letter to FEMA’s administrator Deanne Criswell seeking answers about their current DRF financial projections.
“It is our understanding that your agency expects the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) to run out of funds by August 2024 and may need to activate an immediate needs funding designation as early as June. We cannot stress enough how devastating this funding shortage would be to hurricane and disaster relief efforts in Florida and across the country,” reads the letter.
DRF funds are used to help restore public infrastructure and provide financial assistance to people impacted by disasters like hurricanes. After Hurricane Idalia last year, FEMA provided more than $820 million in aid to Florida.
“The federal government needs to be a partner,” Scott said about the post-hurricane response.
FEMA faced a similar shortfall last year, pausing certain projects to dedicate enough funding for emergency response. Last fall, Congress passed supplemental funding for the agency’s needs.
“Last August, the senators sent a similar letter to Administrator Criswell and led the effort in the Senate to fully fund FEMA’s DRF at the levels FEMA and the White House requested. Not even a year later, the administration is projecting another shortfall, raising concerns about the White House’s ability to manage the program properly,” the letter reads
In a statement, FEMA Director of Public Affairs Jaclyn Rothenberg tells 10 Tampa Bay “FEMA continues to work with the Administration and Congress to ensure sufficient funding is available. Without additional funding, FEMA will take steps prior to funding exhaustion to ensure resources are available to support ongoing lifesaving and life sustaining activities and provide a reserve for initial response and recovery operations for a new catastrophic event.”
Sen. Scott is running for reelection to his seat this November against Democratic challenger and former U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, whose campaign called his concerns with FEMA's funding hypocritical.
“It’s nice that Rick Scott is suddenly concerned about disaster relief funding when he’s up for reelection. But Floridians won’t forget when Red Tide Rick voted against nearly $20 billion in FEMA funding the day after Hurricane Ian, a category 4 storm, devastated Florida’s West Coast communities and left millions stranded and without power," campaign spokesperson Lauren Chou said in a statement to 10 Tampa Bay.
Scott shot back at Dems calling his concerns hypocritical, adding his vote against the FEMA funding was because of its tie-bar to other spending proposals.
"What they do in the Senate is they don't let you vote on just one thing. They put in some big ridiculous package and as you know, we have almost $35 trillion with the debt," Scott added.
Conversations around FEMA and other federal spending will likely ramp up as appropriation talks continue through the coming months.