On Tuesday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “Cuomo,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) responded to a question on why the Biden administration couldn’t give money it’s given to migrants or Lebanon to hurricane victims by saying, “Why aren’t we taking it from the Commerce budget? Why aren’t we taking it from FAA? You can’t do those sort of things” because the executive has to abide by budgets set by Congress.
Moskowitz began by saying that victims of Hurricane Helene haven’t been denied resources, and if there isn’t money, it’s the fault of Congress for not adequately funding the Disaster Relief Fund.
Host Chris Cuomo then asked, “Why isn’t it that Biden could have given the money to these folks that he gave to migrants or to Lebanon or to anything else that’s not these people?”
Moskowitz answered, “These are all different pots of money, Chris. Why aren’t we taking it from the Commerce budget? Why aren’t we taking it from FAA? You can’t do those sort of things. It comes from the budget that you fund. This is not like, oh, we have two bank accounts, why don’t we just go on Bank of America and hit the transfer button? That’s not how it works in government. There are lines of appropriation that then the executive branch has to follow. If there isn’t money — and by the way, there is money available for both Helene and for Milton, they are drawing down, FEMA, the 2025 budget — there won’t be money soon, because they will have spent all of that. But if there isn’t money, it’s on Congress. It’s on nobody else.”
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