The following is a transcript of an interview with House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Oct. 13, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And we go now to House Speaker Mike Johnson, who joins us from Benton, Louisiana. Good morning to you, Mr. Speaker.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE MIKE JOHNSON: Hey Margaret, great to see you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Sir, we know there have been these two devastating hurricanes just in the past 16 days. You have visited some of these disaster zones yourself. And Punchbowl News quotes you as saying that Congress may eventually have to pass an aid package that could reach as high as $100 billion. Last Sunday on this program, Thom Tillis, the senator from North Carolina, said to us he’d like for Congress to provide some certainty by voting now on aid and then come back after the election to do more. Lawmakers aren’t scheduled to come back for another month. Why do you think it can wait?
SPEAKER JOHNSON: Well, it can wait because remember, the day before Hurricane Helene hit, made landfall in Florida, and then went up through the states and wound up in Senator Tillis’s state of North Carolina, Congress appropriated $20 billion additional to FEMA so that they would have the necessary resources to address immediate needs, and so we put that into the coffers. I just checked Margaret as of this morning, less than 2% of that funding has actually been distributed, right around 2% of it, so we need FEMA to do its job. That- those funds, that money is provided so that storm victims can have the immediate necessities met. And then what happens after every storm is that the states have to assess and calculate the actual needs, and then they submit to Congress that request. As soon as that is done, Congress will meet and in bipartisan fashion, we will address those needs. We’ll provide the additional resources. But it would be premature to call everyone back now, because these storms are so large in their scope and magnitude, it’s going to take a little bit of time to make those calculations. In North Carolina, I was there in the worst hit areas around Asheville with Senator Tillis and Senator Budd, Chuck Edwards, the congressman that represents that area, the devastation is broad, and people were still being rescued 13 days out from the storm. That was just a few days back. So they still have a lot to do. It’s going to take a long time to make those calculations, but Congress is ready to act, and we will.