Over 200 Americans are confirmed dead after Hurricane Helene, and we are just hours away from another deadly hurricane hitting Florida.
Communities have been destroyed. Families are devastated. In some areas, families whose homes are still standing are living without water or plumbing.
Instead of being transparent about why so many Americans are struggling to receive help from the federal government, Republicans are pushing conspiracy theories that Democrats stole from FEMA’s disaster relief fund to illegally house immigrants.
Let’s be clear: 1) this is not true and has been widely debunked. 2) Republicans knew this could happen. The climate crisis has created record-breaking wildfires, storms, and hurricanes for years now.
But instead of updating our infrastructure or protecting our families, they vote against climate action and FEMA disaster relief funding every chance they get.
FEMA relies on a disaster fund to cover the costs of helping communities recover from natural disasters. Last year, the agency was responding to 82 major disasters at once and the fund – which Republicans cut funding for – was running out.
Biden urged Congress to pass an additional $16 billion for FEMA’s disaster relief efforts, and House Republicans IGNORED it. FEMA had to leave communities to fend for themselves so they had funds left over for new disasters.
That was last year.
This year, just in the past couple weeks, Republicans in Congress blocked supplemental disaster funding. The $20 billion they agreed to for disaster relief is less than the agency needs. Now FEMA expects to run out of money before the end of hurricane season.
By the way, my opponent is one of 82 House Republicans who voted against that $20 billion.
Leaders who blame innocent people and spread conspiracy theories instead of taking responsibility for their deadly decisions are not qualified to lead. It’s as simple as that.
I was a Navy meteorologist, and it’s Republican bullshit like this that keeps me up at night more than anything else.
We’ve known the threats of refusing to tackle climate change for decades, and we’ve seen the devastation with our own eyes in recent years. Republicans still refuse to do anything useful.
If they won’t change their ways now, it’s not because they’re ignorant. It’s because they don’t care.
They will line their pockets and develop plans to protect their own families while they let the rest of us suffer. Don’t take it from me. Just look at Project 2025.
They plan to dismantle the NOAA, cut funding for climate change research, neutralize the EPA, end our international climate agreements, and expand fossil fuel production. They’ll try whether or not Trump is back in the White House.
The only way we stop them is by flipping the House this year.
Jerrad Christian
Democrat for OH-12
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