{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.banks.senate.gov/news/press-releases/sen-banks-leads-indiana-delegation-in-thanking-fema-for-expanded-disaster-assistance/", "Sen. Banks Leads Indiana Delegation in Thanking FEMA for Expanded Disaster Assistance", "2026-09-29", "2026", "2026-09", "Republican", "Senate", "IN", "Jim Banks", "B001299", "www.banks.senate.gov", "banks", "https://www.banks.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "FEMA approved public assistance for 16 additional Indiana counties and individual assistance for three additional counties on September 24th\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, Senator Jim Banks (R-Ind.) led members of the Indiana congressional delegation in thanking President Donald Trump and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Cameron Hamilton for approving additional federal disaster assistance for Hoosier communities recovering from the severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes, and flooding that began on August 11, 2026.\n\nFEMA approved the Indiana Department of Homeland Security\u2019s request to:\n\nExtend public assistance to 16 additional counties (Carroll, Cass, Fountain, Grant, Marion, Morgan, Parke, Pike, Pulaski, Putnam, Randolph, Rush, Starke, Union, Vermillion, and Warren); and\n\nExtend individual assistance to three additional counties (Cass, Pulaski, and Pike).\n\nRead the full letter here or below:\n\nDear Administrator Hamilton:\n\nWe deeply appreciate President Trump\u2019s August 25, 2026, major disaster declaration for Indiana and FEMA\u2019s continued support for our state\u2019s recovery. We want to express our gratitude to you and your team for approving the Indiana Department of Homeland Security\u2019s (IDHS) requests to extend public assistance to 16 additional counties and individual assistance to three additional counties.\n\nThe severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes, and flooding that began on August 11, 2026, constitute the worst natural disaster that Indiana has faced in decades. Federal disaster assistance has already helped more than 26,000 Hoosier families get back on their feet and enabled hundreds of county and municipal governments to restore public services, but there is much more work to do. We applaud IDHS and FEMA for working together to assess and validate disaster costs in these additional counties and facilitate assistance to them.\n\nWe are grateful for your visit to Indiana and for President Trump\u2019s personal intervention on behalf of the state. We commend the support that FEMA, as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Small Business Administration, have provided to Indiana during the first month of recovery, and we stand ready to work with you in the future.\n\n###", 1, "2026-09-30T10:57:52Z", "2026-09-30T10:59:04Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.banks.senate.gov/news/press-releases/sen-banks-leads-indiana-delegation-in-thanking-fema-for-expanded-disaster-assistance/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8270302787423134, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}