The U.S. Senate has tentatively agreed to $12 billion to respond to disasters across the country, including $1.6 billion to help Maui rebuild following the 2023 wildfires, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz said Tuesday.
With Congress scheduled to adjourn Friday, the U.S. House likely will take up the bill this week before sending it back to the Senate, Schatz said.
The money is attached to the overall federal funding bill that will keep the U.S. government operating.
So Schatz hopes Congress will approve both the larger federal budget and the bipartisan agreement for disaster funds, including for Maui, by the end of this week.
Both red and blue states are affected by disasters, but — with upcoming changes to both the House and Senate and the incoming Trump administration — Schatz said Senate negotiations proved difficult over how much to devote to help communities recover from disasters.
“It’s one of the toughest negotiations I’ve ever been involved in … because it’s spending,” Schatz said.
The Senate’s disaster funding bill has been “posted, which means we have bipartisan agreement,” he said.
Because it requires federal funding, it now goes to the House “and is theoretically amendable, but it won’t be amended,” Schatz said. “Of course, anything can happen in Congress.”
He continues to lobby his Senate colleagues to pass the bill before Friday and send it to President Joe Biden for his potential signature.
“I actually told my colleagues to not book any nonrefundable tickets back home,” Schatz said.
The $1.6 billion for Maui in Block Grant Disaster Recovery funding would go toward housing, economic development, small-business loans, water infrastructure and other purposes.
But Schatz repeated his message that the focus for Lahaina has to be on “housing, housing, housing.”
“It’s the best possible news for the people of Maui, and it allows everybody to begin the process of recovering from this disaster,” Schatz said. “Now we’re moving into a disaster recovery phase.”
Maui has other sources of funding for other disaster relief.
“But this pot of money is the only money exclusively available to rebuild the town of Lahaina,” Schatz said. “People deserve to have their town rebuilt.”
Despite tough negotiations, “this was a bipartisan effort,” Schatz said. “I’m really proud of the work we did together.”
With new members of Congress coming in, along with the Trump administration, Schatz said, “My approach is going to be, Compromise where you can, fight where you must. But my first instinct is to find common ground and continue to fight for Hawaii.”
The Senate bill posted Tuesday follows Schatz’s co-sponsorship of the Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act, which unanimously passed the Senate last week and awaits action by Biden.
Survivors of the Maui wildfires and other disasters across the country would not have to pay federal income tax on their settlement money or pay taxes on any attorney fees included in the settlement.
