A Florida Republican who voted against a stopgap spending bill that recently replenished the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund has called for federal aid as Florida braces for the arrival of Hurricane Milton.
“We have a category 5 hurricane headed right to Pinellas, and @KamalaHarris is taking this time to attack @GovRonDeSantis?” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday night. “Cut the c***. We need FEMA DOLLARS FREE’D UP. ALL ASSETS. STOP ATTACKING RON AND DO YOUR JOB! @VP.”
Luna, an ally of former president and Republican nominee Donald Trump, was among a hundred Republican lawmakers who voted against a stopgap spending bill that recently replenished FEMA’s disaster relief fund.
Congress passed the measure on September 25 to keep government agencies funded into December, avoiding a shutdown while putting back final spending decisions until after November’s election. All the no votes for the measure came from Republicans.
Anna Paulina Luna at the Aero Center Wilmington on September 21, 2024, in Wilmington, North Carolina. Luna, who voted against a bill that funded FEMA, has called for federal aid for Florida ahead of Hurricane Milton.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
The bill provided $20 billion for FEMA—the same amount the agency got last year—and also gave it the flexibility to draw on money as needed. However, it left out billons of dollars that had been requested in supplemental disaster funding. The vote occurred a day before Hurricane Helene made landfall as a Category 4 storm in Florida and then carved a trail of devastation across several other Southeastern states.
Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who oversees FEMA, said the agency can meet immediate needs, but that it doesn’t have enough funding to make it through hurricane season, which lasts until the end of November.
Some lawmakers from the states hardest hit by Helene have called for Congress to come out of recess to vote on emergency funding, but Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday that he does not intend to call Congress back in session before the November election, pointing to the $20 billon that was approved for FEMA the day before Helene hit.
Many pointed to Luna’s vote against the measure in response to her post on X.
The Republicans Against Trump account wrote: “Have you apologized already for voting against FEMA funding?”
X user Art Candee wrote: “YOU VOTED AGAINST FEMA FUNDING THE DAY BEFORE THE HURRICANE HIT. Sit all the way down.”
Another wrote: “You mean the FEMA assets you voted against?”
Some expressed support for Luna’s comments, with one person writing that Harris “is just trying to politicize this storm because her Helene response was so bad.”
Newsweek contacted Luna’s office for comment via email outside normal business hours.
Luna’s post came after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, accused each other of playing politics as Florida braces for Milton to make landfall while still reeling from the devastation wreaked by Helene.
NBC News reported on Monday that DeSantis was not taking calls from Harris about the state’s recovery from Helene.
At a press briefing on Monday, DeSantis denied that he had refused to take Harris’ call. “I didn’t know that she had called,” he said. “I’m not sure who they called.”
Asked about NBC‘s report, Harris told reporters that “people are in desperate need of support right now, and playing political games at this moment, in these crisis situations… is just utterly irresponsible, and it is selfish, and it is about political gamesmanship, instead of doing the job that you took an oath to do, which is to put the people first.”
DeSantis hit back during an appearance on Fox News on Monday night, calling Harris “delusional.”
“We’ve been laser-focused on leveraging all resources available, including from the federal government,” he said. “I’ve been in touch with both FEMA and the President, as well as marshalling all our state agencies, and working to support our local communities. So for Kamala Harris to try to say that my sole focus on the people of Florida is somehow selfish is delusional. She has no role in this.”
DeSantis added: “I’ve had storms under both President Trump and President Biden. And I’ve worked well with both of them. She’s the first one who’s trying to politicize the storm… I don’t have time for political games.”
Milton’s arrival comes as the response to Helene has become a political flashpoint ahead of November’s election. Donald Trump and his Republican allies have criticized the Biden administration’s handling of the response and spread false claims that FEMA can’t respond well enough because the agency has diverted funding for disaster relief efforts to help migrants.
