WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Federal Emergency Management Agency has no more money to pay flood insurance claims and has advised the nation's 96 companies that underwrite flood insurance to suspend payments, a spokesman for the agency said Thursday.

Butch Kinerney, the FEMA spokesman for the flood insurance program, said Hurricane Katrina claims have totaled $23 billion -- and FEMA has already borrowed its limit of $3.5 billion.

Kinerney said the agency notified Congress in September, October and November of the problem and is waiting for Congressional approval to borrow more money.

The House took up the matter Wednesday night, voting to extend FEMA's borrowing authority to $8.5 billion. An initial attempt to up the limit to nearly $22 billion was changed during the debate.

The Senate will take up the bill Thursday.

Kinerney said all claims will be paid, insisting that claims would be delayed by three or four days at most.

"We have a moral and legal obligation to do so," he said.

Congress will need to authorize additional lending in a "piecemeal fashion" to cover all of the agency's obligations.

The claims from Hurricane Katrina, which slammed the Gulf Coast on August 29, are the first to ever exceed FEMA's spending limits, Kinerney said, noting that the next highest pay-outs were from Hurricane Ivan at $1.4 billion.

Before Katrina, Ivan was the only hurricane to top $1 billion in payouts -- the previous mark was Frances at $190 million.

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Hundreds of thousands of businesses and individuals in the region hit by Hurricane Katrina are on the brink of a financial disaster, click here for more.