NC Republicans justifiably want federal aid for Helene recovery. But some have a history of opposing disaster relief.

As the state continues to deal with the damage left by Hurricane Helene, several North Carolina Republicans are justifiably calling for more federal aid, but some of them previously voted against funding for FEMA and other relief bills following natural disasters.

It’s been a week since Hurricane Helene ripped through western North Carolina, wiping out entire communities and killing at least 108 people. Hundreds more remain missing, and tens of thousands remain without power in what has been described as the most devastating storm in modern North Carolina history.

As federal, state, and local officials begin to grapple with what is certain to be a yearslong recovery process, urgency is growing to provide additional financial support, while a deluge of misinformation, lies, and conspiracies are also sewing anger and distrust.

Leaders in the North Carolina General Assembly said Friday that they’re prepared to approve initial disaster relief funding next week to help pay for recovery efforts. Many lawmakers are also urging Congress to end its recess early and return to session to pass a disaster relief bill to help communities affected by Helene. President Biden said this week that he expects that may be necessary, given the scope of the damage.

While it’s increasingly clear that far more support is needed at every level of government and that residents of western North Carolina need an “all-hands-on-deck” response, some of the same politicians now pleading for federal relief are facing fresh scrutiny over their histories of voting against federal disaster aid. Some even voted against a budget bill that included funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)  — the federal agency tasked with responding to natural disasters — just one day before Hurricane Helene made landfall.

North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd and Rep. Dan Bishop, both Republicans, are now calling for federal relief and offering help, but voted against funding FEMA last week, though the bill ultimately passed into law without their votes.

This isn’t the first time North Carolina Republicans now calling for federal help have voted against disaster relief.

When Congress came together to pass a relief bill after Hurricane Sandy in 2013, 180 lawmakers — 179 Republicans and one Democrat — voted against it, including currently serving Republican Reps. Virginia Foxx, Patrick McHenry, and Richard Hudson. 

Fifty-eight Republicans in Congress, including Budd and Foxx, also voted against a sweeping $19.1 billion disaster relief package in 2019. 

Despite her history of voting against funding for disaster relief, Congresswoman Foxx this week has been vocal about the need for more federal aid, urging the White House and North Carolina Gov. Cooper to do more to help her constituents.

Foxx said that the flooding is so bad in the western part of the state that her husband was unable to access their driveway because it had “washed away.” 

Foxx’s story is devastatingly common, as families across western NC have found themselves suddenly homeless, unable to access their homes, or scrambling to find food and water. 

But federal, state, and local emergency response efforts have also been underway since last weekend.

On Sunday, President Joe Biden approved a major disaster declaration, which covers 25 counties in western NC and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in the state, making federal money available to those living in these areas to receive support for housing, home repairs, low-cost loans to restore damage for uninsured property loss, and support for businesses impacted by Helene.

On Wednesday, Biden also ordered the activation of 1,000 soldiers to assist with recovery efforts across the southeast, and visited North Carolina to meet with emergency personnel and first responders working around the clock to navigate the crisis and save lives.

In total, the Biden-Harris administration has deployed more than 5,600 personnel from across the federal workforce, including 1,500 personnel from FEMA, across the areas affected by Hurricane Helene. FEMA has also shipped over 11.5 million meals, more than 12.6 million liters of water, 150 generators, and more than 400,000 tarps to areas affected by Helene. FEMA has also provided survivors with more than $45 million in flexible, upfront funding. 

Biden also announced Wednesday that the state of North Carolina would be reimbursed for 100% of the cleanup costs for six months to ease the state’s financial burden in the recovery. During his visit to the state on Wednesday, Biden made clear he would continue to provide federal support.

“I’m here to say the United States – the nation – has your back,” Biden said at an emergency command center in Raleigh alongside Gov. Cooper. “We’re not leaving until you’re back on your feet completely.”

Gov. Cooper thanked the White House for its aid earlier this week.

“We’re grateful for the quick actions and close communications that we’ve had with the President and with the FEMA team,” he said in a statement. 

Trump spreads lies and misinformation

Despite the continued federal response, some Republicans and far-right activists have claimed the Biden-Harris administration is ignoring the communities devastated by Helene.

Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed the federal response hasn’t been enough, as he’s sought to exploit the hurricane response for political gain. 

“There’s nobody that’s handled a hurricane or storm worse than what they’re doing right now,” Trump said earlier this week at a rally in Michigan. “Kamala spent all her FEMA money, billions of dollars, on housing for illegal migrants. Many of whom should not be in our country.”

Despite this, Trump himself faced intense criticism for his response to Hurricane Maria in 2017.

Most famously, he casually tossed paper towels into a crowd at a church in Puerto Rico following the hurricane. But a Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General report released in 2021 found that tensions within the Trump administration caused $20 billion in hurricane relief to be withheld from Puerto Rico following Maria’s aftermath. 

Trump also joined Republican lawmakers and right-wing commentators this week in blaming the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) decision last year to award $640 million in FEMA-administered funds to assist state and local governments in dealing with an influx of both asylum seekers and migrants for a funding shortfall.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters earlier this week that FEMA does not have enough funding to make it through hurricane season, prompting Republicans to distort his remarks and blame the potential shortfall of funding on the DHS allocation last year. 

“They stole the FEMA money like they stole it from a bank so they could give it to their illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them this season,” Trump said at the rally in Michigan on Thursday.

In reality, the funds allocated to asylum seekers make up approximately 2% of FEMA’s annual budget, which is typically measured in billions, not millions. Republican lawmakers have also repeatedly vowed to cut FEMA funding and the Republicans currently control the House, which handles FEMA’s spending and budget.

Ironically, while Trump is blaming the Biden-Harris administration for supposedly using FEMA disaster funds to manage undocumented immigrants, his administration actually did that exact thing.

As The Washington Post reported on Friday, Trump diverted nearly $10 million in funding from FEMA to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to use for immigrant detention programs in 2018.

And in 2019, the Trump administration told Congress that it was taking $155 million from DHS’ disaster fund to pay for immigration detention facilities and temporary hearing locations for asylum seekers who’d been forced to wait in Mexico. The monthly reports issued by the FEMA disaster fund show $38 million was taken away and given to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in August of that year. 

But despite all evidence to the contrary, Rep. Dan Bishop — who is running for North Carolina attorney general — repeated Trump’s claims  about FEMA funding and immigrants on Friday. 

“I’m hearing from countless North Carolinians who are appalled by FEMA’s response to the catastrophic damage from Helene,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “FEMA should be focused on helping Americans. Not illegal aliens. This shouldn’t be a debate. This is unconscionable and a national scandal.” 

The lies and conspiracies have caused real harm too. State Rep. Lindsey Prather (D), who represents part of Buncombe County, told HuffPost that misinformation has affected the recovery effort. 

“The biggest issue is rumors and fake memes and photos of people being trapped in areas around the county, and we send folks out to rescue them, and there’s no one there to be rescued,” Prather said, noting that such efforts require resources that could be used elsewhere.

The scope of lies, rumors, and conspiracies is so vast that by Friday, FEMA was forced to launch a “rumor response” webpage dedicated to debunking them.

General Assembly Republicans face fresh criticism

At the state level, recent decisions made by the Republican-controlled General Assembly are also facing renewed scrutiny in the wake of Helene. 

Over the last 15 years, Republicans in the state legislature have rejected a number of policies that likely made the devastation worse, including a rule requiring homes in the state to be elevated above the height of an expected flood and limits on construction on steep slopes. In the latter case, those limits may have reduced the number of homes that have been lost to landslides in the state.

In 2014, the GOP-controlled legislature also passed laws that weakened protection for wetlands, which when protected, can help reduce flooding by absorbing excessive rainfall, according to Brooks Rainey Pearson, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. Three years later, the legislature then made it easier for developers to pave green spaces, again increasing the risk of flooding in the area.

In recent years, the legislature has also passed laws that prevent local building inspectors from installing protective sheathing on homes, which can protect them against winds of up to 140 miles per hour; make it more difficult for the state to qualify for FEMA grants to fund climate-resilient construction projects; and prevent the state from requiring that electric water heaters be above ground, to protect from flooding. 

Kim Wooten, an engineer who serves on the North Carolina Building Code Council, says that these decisions from state lawmakers show how deep the influence of North Carolina’s building industry goes. She says they’ve consistently fought against rules that would force their members to construct homes to higher (and more expensive) standards. 

“The Home Builders Association has fought every bill that has come before the General Assembly to try to improve life safety,” Wooten told The Post.

She added that these lawmakers, many of whom have received campaign contributions from the industry, “vote for bills that line their pocketbooks and make home building cheaper.”