In total, 57 major disasters were declared in 2017 under the authority of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq., henceforth the Stafford Act). According to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2017 was "a historic year of weather and climate disasters" for the United States: In total, the U.S. was impacted by 16 separate billion-dollar disaster events tying 2011 for the record number of billion-dollar disasters for an entire calendar year.... More notable than the high frequency of these events is the cumulative cost, which exceeds $300 billion in 2017— a new U.S. annual record . The cumulative damage of these 16 U.S. events during 2017 is $306.2 billion, which shatters the previous U.S. annual record cost of $214.8 billion (CPI-adjusted), established in 2005 due to the impacts of Hurricanes Dennis, Katrina, Rita and Wilma. As of December 2017, the 2017 hurricane season was the seventh most active on record in the Atlantic Basin, according to the National Hurricane Center. Four named storms made landfall on U.S. soil, three of which were major hurricanes (Category 3 or greater on the Saffir-Simpson scale), causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage. Concurrently, a series of deadly wildfires began to ravage California, including some of the largest wildfires in the state's history. Hurricane Harvey made landfall on August 25, 2017, on San Jose Island, TX, as a Category 3 hurricane. Harvey was the first hurricane to strike the coast of Texas since 2008 (Hurricane Ike) and the first major hurricane to strike South Texas since 1970 (Hurricane Celia). The storm remained over southeast Texas for several days. According to the National Weather Service, the storm produced "catastrophic devastating and deadly flash and river flooding. Southeast Texas beared [sic] the brunt of the heavy rainfall, with some areas receiving more than 40 inches of rain in less than 48 hours! Cedar Bayou in Houston received a storm total of 51.88 inches of rainfall which is a new North American record." The storm returned to the Gulf of Mexico and made a final landfall near Cameron, LA, on August 30. Hurricane Irma was "the strongest hurricane ever observed in the open Atlantic Ocean" according to the National Weather Service. It was one of five observed in the Atlantic Basin that attained Category 5 strength—characterized by sustained winds of at least 185 miles per hour. Irma passed just north of the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on September 6, 2017, at Category 5 strength, causing significant damage. After proceeding west and weakening slightly, Irma turned north, making landfall on September 10, first on Cudjoe Key as a Category 4 storm, then on Marco Island as a Category 3 storm. Irma then moved up the west coast of Florida on September 10 and 11, delivering heavy rains, strong winds, and storm surge flooding up the peninsula, with storm impacts extending into Florida's panhandle and into southern Georgia and Alabama. Hurricane Maria intensified from a Category 1 storm to a Category 5 storm on September 18, 2017—the second such storm to do so in the Caribbean during the 2017 hurricane season. Hurricane-force winds from the storm struck the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico early in the morning on September 20, 2017, with the storm making landfall as a strong Category 4 storm in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. The storm moved northwest across the island, moving offshore in the early afternoon, although sustained heavy winds continued throughout the evening and overnight hours. Although the storm passed close by the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas, and remained for several days off the coast of Virginia and the Carolinas, it did not make additional landfalls on U.S. territory. According to the National Wildfire Center Coordinated Group's website, in the last 120 days of 2017, California faced 42 separate wildfire incidents. These fires burned over 700,000 acres and damaged or destroyed more than 9,000 structures, exceeding the total acres burned in the state in 2016 (560,815) and the structures destroyed nationwide (4,132) that year. The Thomas Fire, which began on December 4, 2017, in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, fed by strong winds and dry conditions, became the largest wildfire on record in the state, destroying or damaging over 1,000 structures. Congress has passed three supplemental appropriations bills in response to Administration requests made in September, October, and November 2017 in the wake of these incidents. Table 1 outlines the three requests and enacted appropriations. On September 1, 2017, the Trump Administration requested $7.85 billion in supplemental funding. The Administration requested $7.4 billion for the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) and $450 million for Small Business Administration (SBA) disaster loans for FY2017, and signaled support for authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to obligate funds in the DRF at an accelerated rate that would make up to $6.7 billion available during the period of a possible FY2018 continuing resolution. On September 6, the House passed the relief package requested by the Administration as an amendment to H.R. 601 . On September 7, the Senate passed the bill further amended to include an additional $7.4 billion for disaster relief through the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Community Development Fund, a short-term increase to the debt limit, and a continuing resolution to fund government operations through December 8, 2017. The House subsequently passed the Senate amended version of the bill on September 8, 2017, and it was signed into law by President Trump the same day ( P.L. 115-56 ). On October 4, 2017, the Trump Administration requested an additional $12.7 billion for the DRF, and $16 billion in debt cancellation for the National Flood Insurance Fund (NFIF). On October 12, the House passed H.R. 2266 with a further House amendment to a Senate amendment to the measure, which originally concerned bankruptcy judgeships. The House amendment included $18.67 billion for the DRF, and also allowed some of that funding to be transferred to two other programs: $4.9 billion would go to FEMA's Disaster Assistance Direct Loan Program account, and $10 million to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General for oversight of disaster related activities. The measure also included $577 million for the costs of fighting wildfire on federal lands, and authority to use $1.27 billion of reserve funds for a grant to support nutrition assistance programs in Puerto Rico. The bill subsequently was signed into law as P.L. 115-72 on October 26, 2017. The Trump Administration made a third supplemental appropriations request for disaster relief and recovery funding on November 17, 2017, seeking roughly $44.0 billion in additional funding. On December 18, 2017, H.R. 4667 was introduced with House Appropriations Committee language prepared in response to this request. The measure included roughly $81 billion in additional funding, as well as other matters, including disaster recovery reform, agriculture assistance, and nutrition assistance. On December 21, 2017, H.R. 4667 was brought to the House Floor under the terms of H.Res. 670 , a resolution reported from the House Committee on Rules which added additional disaster-related tax provisions and a designation of low-income communities in Puerto Rico as opportunity zones. The bill passed the House 251-169, and was sent to the Senate. On February 7, 2018, the Senate took up H.R. 1892 , an unrelated piece of legislation, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced S.Amdt. 1930 , which would become the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018. Subdivision I of Division B of the amendment was titled "Further Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Requirements Act, 2018" and included more than $84 billion in additional disaster assistance funding. The amendment was agreed to by a vote of 71-28 on February 9, 2018. The amended bill passed the House by a vote of 240-186 later that same day and was signed into law by President Trump as P.L. 115-123 . Table 1 details the supplemental appropriations requested and enacted in the wake of the storms and fires of 2017, organized by appropriations subcommittee of jurisdiction. Grey columns at the right provide totals requested and enacted for each subcommittee as of March 7, 2018. Table notes include details about transfers and specific tasking of funds outlined in the respective public laws. The table does not make note of resources available from existing balances in accounts funding disaster-related programs or resources provided through the annual appropriations process. For details on program operations and funding, see the CRS experts list included at the end of the report. The series of supplemental appropriations requested and provided in the wake of 2017's hurricanes and wildfires are the latest exercise of the congressional role of exercising "the power of the purse" to provide relief to state and local governments overwhelmed by disaster response and recovery needs, fund certain relief for individuals and small businesses, and repair damage to federal facilities. In the process of exercising this power, a number of issues frequently reemerge in congressional debate. One is the use of exemptions from discretionary budget limits to enable investments in disaster relief, and whether such exemptions are properly structured. Although these exemptions are in law, and precedents for not directly reducing spending to offset many types of disaster costs exist, Congress periodically debates amendments to offset some or all of the cost of emergency and disaster relief appropriations measures.