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Indeed, as the House and Senate’s top four leaders met last weekend to negotiate a deal to keep the government funded, they were forced to acquiesce to the demands of Congress’ most conservative fiscal hawks, whose votes were thought to be pivotal for passage. They quietly stripped the CR of almost all supplemental funding, including for FEMA, according to multiple House appropriators.

FEMA’s disaster relief fund is staring down a nearly $2 billion deficit at the end of the month, and the agency has been in “immediate-needs” mode for weeks, having to hold back billions of dollars that could go to rebuilding projects in order to support more urgent life-saving work.

The CR approved Wednesday would extend FEMA’s current funding level through Dec. 20, and would allow the agency to more quickly draw from that funding to meet current needs. But the agency’s latest monthly report projects that money from the CR will last only through January and that the fund will still face a $3 billion deficit by February.