President Biden is asking Congress to approve nearly $100 billion in emergency funding to aid recovery efforts for the recent deadly storms that ravaged parts of the South.

Biden sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Monday asking him to quickly take up his supplemental disaster aid request, specifically aimed at helping people affected by storms Helene and Milton.

The White House letter did not specify a total, but Fox News Digital was told it amounts to roughly $98 billion.

‘With the Congress now back in session, I write to request urgently needed emergency funding to provide for an expeditious and meaningful Federal response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton and other natural disasters,’ Biden wrote.

The speaker’s office confirmed it received the request, and it was being reviewed by staff.

Fox News Digital also reached out to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle have repeatedly said they would stand ready to act on storm relief funds once a cost estimate was made.

Johnson told Fox News Digital in early October that Helene would likely be ‘one of the most expensive storms that the country has ever encountered.’

‘It affects at least six states – a broad swath of destruction across many, many areas – and I think that’s why it’s going to take awhile to assess,’ Johnson said at the time. ‘As soon as those numbers are ready, Congress will be prepared to act.’

Helene barreled into the Southeastern U.S. in late September, killing more than 100 people in North Carolina alone and causing billions of dollars of structural damage.

Hurricane Milton, another deadly storm, hit Florida and Georgia roughly a week later.

Biden’s funding request is expected to cover the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund, and disaster funds for the Small Business Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and other relevant areas.

It comes as FEMA faces some backlash after an official was caught instructing workers to ignore houses with pro-Trump campaign signs in Florida after Milton and Helene. 

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell condemned the incident, which she called an isolated event.

Criswell is due before the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday for a high-stakes hearing.

And while any supplemental relief package is expected to get broad enough bipartisan support to pass, House GOP hardliners are expected to oppose the measure if it does not offset the costs with cuts elsewhere.

Vice President Kamala Harris spent a whopping $1.5 billion during her 15-week campaign that ended in defeat to President-elect Donald Trump, including burning through millions of dollars on star-studded events on the eve of the election, according to a report.

According to The New York Times, Harris’ swing state rallies on the night before Election Day exceeded the campaign’s planned budget, ballooning to over $10 million. 

These pricey celebrity events featured Lady Gaga in Philadelphia, Jon Bon Jovi in Detroit, Christina Aguilera in Nevada, James Taylor in North Carolina and Katy Perry in Pittsburgh. While the singers did not receive compensation, the newspaper said officials confirmed that the support staff was compensated.

Part of the higher-than-expected costs came from having to rebuild an entire rally venue in Pittsburgh after the Secret Service said the initial location could not be properly secured, The Times reported.

How Harris spent such an exorbitant amount of money during her compressed campaign has left questions as to where all that cash went. 

One payment being scrutinized in recent days has been the reported $1 million payment to Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions.

An initial report by the Washington Examiner showed the Harris campaign made two $500,000 payments to Winfrey’s Harpo Productions on Oct. 15, a month after Winfrey’s town hall with Harris and weeks before the pair appeared at a Harris Philadelphia rally. Now, two sources have told The Times that the full price of the event with Winfrey was closer to $2.5 million.

A Harpo Productions spokesperson acknowledged to Variety that the company took money from the campaign but claimed it was for ‘production costs.’

‘Oprah Winfrey was at no point during the campaign paid a personal fee, nor did she receive a fee from Harpo,’ the spokesperson said.

Other major costs for Harris’ failed campaign included $111 million in online ads seeking donations, about $50 million for door-to-door canvassers and $2.5 million paid to three digital agencies who work with online influencers, The Times reported.

Eyebrow-raising expenses were listed in a Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing obtained by Fox News Digital. According to the FEC filing, in the month of October alone, the Harris campaign spent $2,626,110 on private flights. 

The costs ranged from $3,500 to $940,000 per disbursement, with $2.2 million going to a company named Private Jet Services Group, while $430,000 went to Advanced Aviation Team, a charter flight broker.

The Harris campaign is believed to be $20 million in debt, but Harris campaign chief financial officer Patrick Stauffer said in a statement reported by the Times that ‘there will be no debt’ on the upcoming December filings for the campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Fox News Digital’s Stepheny Price and Andrea Margolis contributed to this report.

The House Ethics Committee is meeting this Wednesday after previously postponing a meeting when the panel was expected to discuss its investigation of now-former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., Fox News has learned.

Lawmakers were expected to vote last Friday on whether to release the committee’s report into Gaetz before that meeting was canceled without explanation.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters that Gaetz had resigned from Congress effective immediately on Wednesday, hours after he was tapped to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general.

House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., told reporters after Gaetz’s nomination that his panel would lose jurisdiction over the Florida Republican if he left Congress.

‘Once the investigation is complete, then a report will be issued, assuming that at that time, that Mr. Gaetz is still a member of Congress. If Mr. Gaetz were to resign because he is taking a position with the administration as the attorney general, then the Ethics Committee loses jurisdiction at that point,’ Guest said before news of Gaetz leaving.

‘Once we lose jurisdiction, there would not be a report that would be issued. That’s not unique to this case.’

The committee’s probe was put to an end after Gaetz’s resignation.

However, several Republicans have already said the report should be released if Gaetz were to go through the attorney general vetting process, including GOP senators whose support would be critical to Gaetz being confirmed.

The House Ethics Committee’s investigation into Gaetz, which began in 2021, stems from accusations of illicit drug use and sex with a minor.

The Department of Justice (DOJ), which Gaetz has been tapped to lead, also previously investigated the matter but closed that probe with no charges filed.

Gaetz himself has denied any wrongdoing.

A spokesperson for the House Ethics Committee declined to comment on the new Wednesday meeting, which was first reported by CNN.

Johnson lent his voice to the increasingly heated debate on Friday, telling reporters he did not believe the report should be released.

‘The Speaker of the House is not involved with those things. I am reacting to media reports that a report is currently in some draft form and was going to be released on what is now a former member of the House. I do not believe that that is an appropriate thing,’ the house speaker said.

‘That would open up Pandora’s box and I don’t think that’s a healthy thing for the institution, so that’s my position.’

Fox News Digital reached out to a Gaetz spokesperson for comment.

Fox News’ Daniel Scully contributed to this report.

President Joe Biden for the first time authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-given long-range missiles to strike inside Russia, a prospect that President-elect Donald Trump’s allies believe could threaten ‘World War III.’

Ukraine can now target positions in the Kursk region, where Russia has lined up some 50,000 troops, including 10,000 North Koreans, senior U.S. officials confirmed to Fox News. Ukrainian forces seized the Russian territory earlier this year. 

‘This is another step up the escalation ladder, and no one knows where this is going,’ Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., Trump’s incoming national security adviser, said on Fox News. 

‘​​No one anticipated that Joe Biden would ESCALATE the war in Ukraine during the transition period. This is as if he is launching a whole new war,’ Ric Grenell, Trump’s former acting director of national intelligence, wrote on X, formerly Twitter. 

‘Everything has changed now – all previous calculations are null and void. And all for politics.’

‘The Military Industrial Complex seems to want to make sure they get World War 3 going before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives. Gotta lock in those $Trillions. Life be damned!!! Imbeciles!’ Donald Trump Jr., the president-elect’s son, wrote on X.

‘On his way out of office, Joe Biden is dangerously trying to start WWIII by authorizing Ukraine the use of U.S. long range missiles into Russia,’ said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., on X. ‘The American people gave a mandate on Nov 5th against these exact America last decisions.’

Deputy national security adviser Jon Finer, in Rio de Janeiro on Monday, did not comment specifically on long-range missiles, but suggested the introduction of North Korean forces factored into the White House’s decision. 

‘The United States has been clear throughout this conflict that we will make our policy decisions based on the circumstances we identify on the battlefield, including in recent days and weeks a significant Russian escalation that involves the deployment of a foreign country’s forces on its own territory,’ Finer said.

Ukraine has pleaded for months with the Biden administration to be allowed to strike inside Russia — and hawkish members of Congress have issued similar demands. But Biden officials feared getting the U.S. further entrenched in the war.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., called the authorization an ‘impeachable offense.’

‘By authorizing long range missiles to strike inside Russia, Biden is committing an unconstitutional Act of War that endangers the lives of all U.S. citizens. This is an impeachable offense, but the reality is he’s an emasculated puppet of a deep state,’ Massie wrote on X. 

Ukrainian forces have been using drones for some deep strikes, but believe the U.S.-made ATACMS would be more effective. 

ATACMS, a surface-to-surface missile system fired from a mobile launcher vehicle, can strike anywhere between 100 and 190 miles away. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has yet to respond to reports the U.S. will cross one of his ‘red lines,’ but his spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, accused the U.S. of adding fuel to the fire. 

‘This is a qualitatively new round of tension and a qualitatively new situation in terms of U.S. involvement in this conflict,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists in a Monday briefing. ‘It’s clear that the outgoing administration in Washington intends to take steps to, they’ve said so, to continue to add fuel to the fire and to further provoke the level of tension.’

Ukraine has not yet used any ATACMS in Russia, according to a senior defense official. 

Rebekah Koffler, a former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officer and author of ‘Putin’s Playbook,’ suggested the reports could be a ‘trial balloon to disrupt Trump’ and Biden may not have formally authorized the ATACMS strikes yet. 

‘Biden knows the danger of dragging the U.S. into conflict with Russia,’ she said. ‘But if the reports are true, then what it means to Putin is that he has been correct all along in thinking that the U.S. is serious about destroying Russia, using Ukraine, and he was correct all along to devise a plan to defeat the U.S., if necessary, with kinetic means.

‘It will mean when Trump comes, Putin does not trust the U.S.… he will likely just proceed to destroying Ukraine. That is why he is not in a rush to negotiate, because he thinks that he can do it, because Russia has Ukraine outgunned and outmanned.’

Trump has insisted he could bring a quick end to the war, a belief Koffler predicted Putin would play to his advantage. 

‘He’s going to pretend that he’s interested in negotiations, and drag it on, drag it on. And you know, trying to get the best deal possible. In the meantime, he’s going to proceed [with] destroying Ukraine.’

Other congressional hawks welcomed the reported lift on restrictions, but said it had taken too long.

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mo., ranking member on the Armed Services Committee, said the decision ‘does not excuse the administration’s deliberate slow-walking of items and assistance long authorized by Congress for use against] Putin’s illegal aggression.’

Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, called the new move ‘long overdue,’ saying, ‘President Biden should have listened to President Zelenskyy’s pleas much earlier.’

Earlier this month, Biden, for the first time, authorized U.S. contractors to deploy to Ukraine to help the country’s military maintain and repair U.S.-provided weapons systems. 

The announcement came after Great Britain and France authorized Ukraine to launch SCALP/Storm Shadow missile strikes, according to French outlet Le Figaro.

Biden’s announcement also came just hours after Russia concluded one of its largest missile and drone attacks in months, launching more than 200 targeting Ukraine’s power and energy infrastructure.

Putin has previously said that giving Ukraine the green light on missile use would effectively mean that the U.S. and NATO are ‘in the war.’

‘Flight assignments for these missile systems can, in fact, only be entered by military personnel from NATO countries. Ukrainian servicemen cannot do this. And therefore, it is not a question of allowing the Ukrainian regime to strike Russia with these weapons or not. It is a question of making a decision whether NATO countries directly participate in the military conflict or not,’ Putin said in September.

Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report.

— The House Homeland Security Committee is demanding interviews with three FEMA employees on possible ‘systemic bias’ against Trump supporters — as the agency deals with fallout from now-fired employee Marn’i Washington telling relief workers to skip houses visibly advertising support for President-elect Trump during recovery efforts after Hurricane Milton. 

In a letter to FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green, R-Tenn., asks to speak with three employees who would have been responsible for policy in Florida, where Washington was assigned. Those employees are FEMA Region 4 Administrator Robert Samaan, Deputy Region 4 Administrator Robert Ashe and Chad Hershey, the lead for FEMA’s disaster survivor assistance crew. 

The letter cites recent comments by Washington, including to Fox News, that she’s being scapegoated for doing what her superiors told her to do. 

Green is joined on the letter by Reps. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., and Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., who chair relevant Homeland Security subcommittees. 

‘Ms. Washington’s statement contradicts FEMA’s press release and points to a possibly systemic bias within FEMA against individuals that support President-elect Donald J. Trump,’ the lawmakers said in the letter. ‘If such bias is present within FEMA, the Committee is deeply concerned that households that support President-elect Trump and even neighborhoods consisting of primarily Republican-aligned households might be receiving diminished levels of resources, manpower, and support, significantly protracting recovery following natural disasters.’ 

Criswell said in a statement after the Daily Wire first reported on Washington’s order that it was ‘reprehensible’ and ‘a clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles.’

‘I’m just simply executing, again, what was coming down from my superiors,’ Washington shot back in an interview with Trace Gallagher on ‘Fox News @ Night’ last week. 

‘This was the culture. They were already avoiding these homes based on community trends from hostile political encounters,’ Washington also said. 

Green’s letter asks that FEMA schedule the interviews with Hershey, Ashe and Samaan by the end of this week. Fox News is also told by a source familiar that the Homeland Security Committee will have another transcribed interview request on FEMA oversight soon. 

‘If [Washington] is right and there is a broader ‘policy’ of discriminatory practices in the agency’s recovery efforts, this Committee will demand accountability from the highest levels,’ Green said in a statement to Fox News. 

Washington emphasized to Fox News that FEMA prioritizes ‘avoidance’ and ‘de-escalation’ in situations where some employees may feel unsafe, and that isn’t necessarily politically targeted at Trump supporters. This could include other situations, like urban areas where there are unleashed dogs, she said. 

Washington told Gallagher that discriminating against people explicitly because of political leanings would violate the Hatch Act, but said ‘unfortunately, again, the passionate supporters for Trump, some of them were a little bit violent.’ 

Criswell will nevertheless face a congressional grilling Tuesday. She appears before a House Transportation & Infrastructure subcommittee at 10 a.m. EST and then will testify to the House Oversight Committee at 2 p.m. EST.  

Fox News’ Trace Gallagher and Melissa Summers contributed to this report.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., is introducing a resolution to ban transgender women from using women’s restrooms at the U.S. Capitol.

Mace is expected to file the resolution on Monday.

She told Fox News Digital of the measure, ‘The sanctity of protecting women and standing up against the Left’s systematic erasure of biological women starts here in the nation’s Capitol.’

The South Carolina Republican plans to introduce a measure ‘prohibiting Members, officers, and employees of the House from using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex, and for other purposes,’ according to text previewed by Fox News Digital.

It comes just before the first openly transgender lawmaker, Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, D-Del., is set to join Congress in January.

House Republicans have previously changed rules on their side of Congress, such as when ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., scuttled metal detectors outside the House chamber after winning the gavel from previous Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Mace’s legislation would charge the House sergeant at arms with enforcing the rule.

It’s a preview of what kind of changes Republicans could look to pass when they control both houses of Congress next year. 

Republicans hammered Democrats on transgender issues in the most recent election, particularly the topic of trans youth athletes in school sports.

The House GOP moved to restrict federal dollars for transgender health care and to block trans student athletes from participating in school sports teams of their chosen gender.

Mace previously introduced a bill that would have forced illegal immigrants with a history of sex crimes or violence against women to be deported. That bill passed with the support of 51 Democrats and all House Republicans.