Included in the massive omnibus package is the Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, which includes $27 billion for natural disaster emergency relief funding, plus another $11 billion for lots of other… stuff.

Supplemental funding, as the name suggests, is in addition to the continuing funding for general operations of the federal government, which includes many existing disaster response programs. Our analysis of the agriculture and wildfire sections of the omnibus package includes discussion of supplemental funding in those areas.

It is better than likely Congress will pass additional supplemental spending bills for emergency disaster response next year. The billions included in this supplemental and the underlying FY23 budget are just the baseline. We will likely spend in excess of $100 billion on natural disaster response and mitigation in 2023, and this total will continue to rise every year as these disasters grow increasingly destructive, thanks to climate change.

Here are a few examples of the scope of spending devoted to natural disasters, just in the supplemental:

• $5 billion for FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund for disaster recovery efforts related to recent disasters, including Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico and Hurricane Ian in Florida
• $3 billion for the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program for the long-term housing, infrastructure, and economic recovery needs for areas impacted by a natural disaster.
• $1.5 billion for “National Park Service, Construction” for necessary expenses related to the consequences of wildfires, hurricanes, and other natural disasters.
• $500 million for infrastructure and other long-term economic recovery efforts for areas impacted by natural disasters in 2021 and 2022.
• $327.7 million for the acquisition of hurricane hunter aircraft.
• $300 million for fisheries disaster assistance, to mitigate the effects of commercial fishery failures and fishery resource disasters.
• $82.9 million to repair Navy facilities in Florida, Georgia and Virginia damaged by Hurricanes Ian and Fiona.
• $16.6 million to repair Army National Guard facilities in Florida and Puerto Rico damaged by Hurricanes Ian and Fiona.
• $6.8 million to repair Army Reserve facilities in North Carolina, Florida and Puerto Rico damaged by Hurricanes Ian and Fiona.