House Democrats squeeze Johnson on early disaster aid vote

• Lawmakers in both parties said in the aftermath of Helene and an Iranian missile attack on Israel that Congress should reconvene early to pass supplemental funding.
• But leadership in both chambers has given little indication they will call lawmakers back to Washington in their final month of campaigning.

Driving the news: Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) is leading a letter to Johnson with Reps. Kathy Manning (D-N.C.), Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), Dina Titus (D-Nev.) and Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) calling to "immediately reconvene" the House, according to a copy obtained by Axios.

• The letter, first reported by Bloomberg Government, says the disaster aid funds Congress passed before leaving session last month "fall critically short of what will be necessary to address the scale of destruction."
• "As representatives of the American people, it is our duty to ensure that every community has the resources to recover and rebuild in the wake of devastation," the lawmakers wrote.

Zoom in: The letter is open for signatures until Wednesday afternoon. It had attained signatures from another half dozen Democrats as of Tuesday morning, Kaptur's office told Axios.

• It is being circulated to House members in both parties.

Between the lines: Moskowitz, a former director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, told Axios in an interview, "You're gobbling up all these resources [after Helene]. Now you have a second hurricane coming, really the worst-case scenario if it happens the way it is at the moment."

• "These are two East Coast events, so all of the assets on the East Coast are gone. So now you're pulling stuff [from] west of Ohio," he added, warning that supplies will cost more and take longer to arrive.