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LIVE OAK, Fla. – Today, Senator Rick Scott joined President Joe Biden, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and local officials in Suwanee County to meet with families, tour impacts of Hurricane Idalia in the area and receive an update on response and recovery efforts. Senator Scott also met one-on-one with the President to urge him to support the immediate passage of the Senator’s Federal Disaster Responsibility Act to provide much-needed relief and resources to Floridians and Americans impacted by natural disasters.

Following Idalia’s landfall as a major Category 3 hurricane on Florida’s Nature Coast, Senator Scott has traveled to impacted areas and continues to speak with mayors, law enforcement, business and community leaders, utilities and federal officials to ensure Florida’s families and communities are getting every resource needed to respond to and recover from the storm.

Senator Rick Scott said, “Today, I met with President Biden in Live Oak to deliver one clear message – Floridians need him to give his support for the immediate passage of my Federal Disaster Responsibility Act. During our one-on-one meeting, I made clear that we can’t let Washington play games with disaster relief funds or make helping Americans contingent on helping foreign causes. Since Hurricane Idalia devastated the Big Bend as a major Category 3 storm earlier this week, I’ve been visiting impacted communities to meet with local and state officials and hear what they need from the federal government. Floridians are resilient, but recovery doesn’t fall just on these families – it’s an all hands on deck operation that requires the federal government to show up today, tomorrow and every day until the job is done. I’ll be fighting like hell to get this bill passed and I urged President Biden to put Floridians and all Americans first by doing the same.”

Senator Scott announced his Federal Disaster Responsibility Act this week, which he will be fighting to immediately pass. Learn more below or HERE.

Senator Scott’s Federal Disaster Responsibility Act includes:

• Pass an enhanced version of the Disaster Relief Fund Replenishment Act and fully fund the immediate needs of FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund with at least $16.5 billion to ensure the federal government can uphold its obligation to quickly deploy emergency funding and resources to communities and Americans impacted by natural disasters.
• Ensure final passage of the bipartisan Block Grant Assistance Act which provides needed authority for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to issue block grants to Florida’s citrus growers and all U.S. agriculture producers devastated by natural disasters in 2022.
• Secure final passage of the Hurricane Tax Relief Act which takes care of Americans impacted by disasters by providing disaster-loss tax relief to families who have been impacted by qualified disasters for purposes of enhanced disaster casualty loss tax relief. This bill modifies the deduction for personal casualty losses in the hurricane disaster areas, waiving the requirements for impacted taxpayers to itemize deductions and to have losses that exceed 10% of adjusted gross income. Congress previously extended this tax relief for hurricanes Irma, Wilma, Dorian, and Michael, among others.
• Commit necessary funds and resources to Florida’s military installations to fully rebuild and recover from hurricane damage.

Following the urging of Senator Scott and his colleagues in the Florida congressional delegation, President Biden approved Florida’s request for a Major Disaster Declaration this week which will help draw down federal resources to help support response and recovery in the state. See more information on resources available following the declaration of the Major Disaster Declaration in Florida from FEMA HERE. Additional information on federal resources available to Floridians and impacted communities following Hurricane Idalia can be found HERE.

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