Biden announces more than $600 million for grid resilience during visit to assess damage from Hurricane Milton

President Joe Biden made yet another trip to a hurricane-ravaged community with his Sunday visit to Florida, where he announced more than half a billion dollars in power grid resiliency projects as more costly and frequent storms continue to hit. pressure disaster from the federal government. -aid financing.

“I’m here in Florida for the second time in two weeks to assess the damage from another catastrophic storm, Hurricane Milton,” Biden said after an aerial tour of the storm’s damage in St. Petersburg. “Fortunately, the impact of the storm was not as cataclysmic as we had anticipated.”

But, he added, “for some individuals, it was cataclysmic.”

Biden sympathized with Florida residents who lost everything, describing them as “heartbroken and exhausted, and their expenses are piling up.”

He thanked local officials who were personally affected by the storm, saying their work was a testament to the “resilience of the people of West Florida.”

His visit came as the president and other leaders urged Congress to approve additional funding for disaster relief programs and small businesses as this year’s extreme weather events quickly drained government relief funds.

House Speaker Mike Johnson reiterated Sunday that Congress will not return sooner to approve additional funding for disaster relief. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Sunday that the agency has enough funding for “immediate” needs but emphasized that Congress will need to act quickly to sufficiently fund the agency when it returns. after the elections.

The $612 million in funding Biden announced Sunday, which comes as nearly 1.5 million customers struggle with power outages, includes $94 million for projects specifically in Florida, a White House official said. , with $47 million going to Gainesville Regional Utilities and $47 million to Switched Source. partner with Florida Power and Light.

“These investments are part of the President’s commitment to making long-term investments that protect, improve and improve our country’s electrical grid, especially in the face of extreme weather events,” the official said in a statement on Saturday.

The funds will be disbursed through the Department of Energy’s Grid Resiliency and Innovation Partnerships Program.

Biden’s visit to St. Petersburg to assess the damage caused by Hurricane Milton followed separate trips the president made earlier this month to Florida, along with visits to Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina to tour devastated areas. by Hurricane Helene.

Although presidential visits to disaster zones are almost always non-partisan affairs that serve to demonstrate that federal and state governments transcend politics to work together, this effect is amplified now that Biden is no longer a presidential candidate in the 2024 elections.

Biden has been in frequent contact with Republican leaders, including the governors of Florida and Georgia and conservative members of Congress throughout the hurricane-hit areas of the Southeast — and praise is often exchanged between the state and local levels.

The president held the event on Sunday alongside Florida’s staunch Republican Senator Rick Scott and Representative Anna Paulina Luna. However, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis did not appear alongside the president.

Biden fell back on bipartisanship when asked about DeSantis, admitting he had not spoken to the Florida governor on Sunday but adding that “Republicans and Democrats are happy” with the federal response to the storm.

In moments like these, Biden said, “we come together to care for each other, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans. … We are one United States.”

The president has been especially complimentary about efforts by state and local officials to discourage their constituents from spreading false rumors and misinformation — as leaders say they have led to threats against aid workers on the ground and caused residents to avoid seeking help. help they need. During this trip, Biden did not mention the misinformation spread by some of his critics in the wake of the hurricane.

“Conservative and radical” Republicans in the affected areas, he said Friday, “are standing up and saying, ‘This has to stop.’”

But the veneer of bipartisanship has been slow to translate to Vice President Kamala Harris, who has also visited disaster sites and maintained contact with state and local officials. DeSantis and Harris accused each other of playing politics following reports that DeSantis ignored calls from Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee. In response, DeSantis highlighted that he is in contact with Biden and that Harris, as vice president, has no role in the federal government’s response.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Sam Fossum contributed to this report.

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