Rick Scott skipped the vote to give FEMA more money, but now says he will be “very vocal” in urging Congress to help it

Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said Friday he has asked federal agencies involved in disaster relief to tell him what dollar amounts they need from Congress to help Floridians in the past two weeks were damaged by hurricanes Helene and Milton.

“I spoke to the FEMA administrator yesterday and said, ‘Give me a number. …Tell me when you need it and I will be very helpful in making it happen.’ So that’s what I asked of FEMA and the SBA Administrator [the] the same thing, and then I asked the president, ‘If you give me the numbers, I will say it very clearly.'”

The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency is Deanne Criswell. The SBA is the Small Business Administration.

President Biden joined other Democrats on Thursday in calling on Congress to return to Washington sooner rather than later to pass additional disaster relief after the two storms. But Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, opposes the plan and said Congress will address these funding needs, but only after next month’s general election.

Speaking to reporters after a boat ride with Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister and others conducting rescue missions to save residents from flooding, Scott said he believed Johnson could be persuaded to return to Washington.

“If we need the money, I have every confidence that Mike Johnson will help us get it back into action,” he told the Phoenix.

The Naples Republican, who is running for re-election against Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, said President Biden thanked him this week for his vocal support for FEMA, the Small Business Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Urban Development and the Department of Agriculture is fully funded so that it can provide adequate assistance to Florida residents.

The White House announced Friday that the president will appear somewhere in Florida on Sunday to visit areas affected by Hurricane Milton.

Climate change?

Scott repeated his comments after Hurricane Helene hit Florida when asked if he thought the powerful storms were a result of the planet warming due to carbon emissions.

“I don’t think the climate is changing, so let’s acknowledge that [that]” he told reporters.

“Look at 2017, with the storm surge we had with Irma down in the Keys. “Look at 2018 with the storm surge on Mexico Beach,” Scott continued.

So we have to think about how we deal with it. When I was governor, we funded studies, we spent a lot of money on beach restoration, sea level rise and studies on that, we did flood mitigation measures. … As citizens, we have to figure out how to deal with this.”

Florida Democrats were less impressed with Scott’s advocacy for FEMA funding on Friday, pointing out that Scott skipped the vote in September when Republicans opposed additional disaster funds in a continuing resolution to further fund the U.S. government pronounced.

“Florida residents desperately need Helene and Milton disaster relief funds to rebuild, but Rick Scott wasn’t in Washington to fight for it when it mattered most. Scott wants to be the hero, but he can’t change the facts: He has voted against disaster relief time and time again. Floridians are fed up with Scott’s performances and will hold him accountable in November,” party leader Nikki Fried told the Phoenix in a written statement.

The emergency boat rescues conducted by Hillsborough County sheriff’s deputies came as the Alafia River in Lithia, east of Tampa, had risen about 15 feet since Milton dumped more than 15 inches of rain on the county Wednesday evening.

“This is not a boat ramp,” Chronister told reporters while standing in front of a pool of water several feet deep.

“This is a flooded neighborhood that we can use to launch a lot of our equipment. ..These six-foot floods suffered by these poor residents were a mile from the river. These residents are resilient, they are used to minor floods. They are not used to the extent of these floods and the speed at which they occurred.”

–Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix