"Yes there's the federal role, yes we're going to find the cash. We're just going to make sure that you will find savings elsewhere, " Representative Eric Cantor, the Absolutely no. 2 Republican in the House of Representatives, informed Fox News.
Democrats who oversee disaster funding within the Senate said they won't cut other programs to enhance emergency aid.
"It makes no sense to cut programs that help respond to future disasters to be able to pay for emergencies that have already occurred, " Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu said inside a prepared statement.
Irene killed at least 21 people and caused substantial property damage from New york to Vermont over the weekend. Cantor's Virginia district was one of the areas hit by the storm, and was the epicentre of the earthquake last week.
Obama administration officials said they'd no estimate of the storm's cost and had been still assessing the damage, but other elected officials and companies have indicated it'll likely amount to billions of dollars.
The administration will likely have to ask Congress for additional funding at any given time when lawmakers are debating further budget cuts.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has suspended financing for some rebuilding programs from earlier disasters to ensure its disaster-relief fund will not run out associated with money, according to agency administrator Craig Fugate.
FEMA currently has $972 million within the fund, according to congressional Republicans.
President Barack Obama has signed declarations committing the us government to helping states from North Carolina to Brand new Hampshire cover disaster-response costs.
Obama also approved federal funding for people in Puerto Rico who were affected by the actual storm. People in other storm-ravaged areas could become entitled to federal money once damage assessments are completed, Fugate stated.
FUND RUNNING LOW
"Once we know how much impact Irene may have we'll have a better sense of what assistance we might need, " Fugate said on a conference phone.
This year has been one of the the majority of extreme for weather in US history, with $35 billion in losses to date from floods, tornadoes and heat waves.
FEMA has struggled to finance these recovery efforts, warning lawmakers that its disaster-relief account is running low.
The Republican-controlled House passed a bill in June that could give FEMA an additional $1 billion in disaster-relief funds for that current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, in addition to $2. 65 billion for the coming fiscal 12 months.
But that bill would require the White Home to cut other government programs if it needed more income for disaster relief -- a provision the administration has said it might ignore.
Landrieu said her Senate Homeland Security appropriations subcommittee will hold a vote by itself funding bill on Sept. 6, the day Our elected representatives returns from its August recess. That bill will differ substantially in the House-passed version, her staff indicated.
Cantor and other Republicans have made spending cuts a top priority since taking control of the home in November 2010 in a bid to bring trillion-dollar budget deficits in check. Budget battles pushed the government to the brink of the shutdown in April and to the edge of the first-ever default in August.
Republicans have not previously been reluctant to approve disaster-relief money free through normal budget constraints.
After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and far of the surrounding region in 2005, the Republican-controlled Our elected representatives approved $81. 6 billion as "emergency spending" outside the normal budget process.