GOP Texas lawmaker blocks disaster relief bill
Ex-Cruz aide says $19B doesn’t include border crisis funds
WASHINGTON — A House GOP conservative complaining a long-overdue $19 billion disaster aid bill leaves out money needed to address the migrant crisis at the border blocked the bill Friday, extending a tempest over hurricane and flood relief that has left the measure meandering for months.
The move came a day after the measure flew through the Senate despite a Democratic power move to strip out President Donald Trump’s $4.5 billion request for dealing with a migrant crisis on the U.S.Mexico border.
Texas Rep. Chip Roy, a former aide to Texas firebrand Sen. Ted Cruz, complained that it does not contain any money to address increasingly urgent border needs. “It is a bill that includes nothing to address the international emergency and humanitarian crisis we face at our southern border,” Roy said.
He also objected to speeding the measure through a nearly empty chamber, saying it was important for lawmakers to actually vote on a bill that “spends a significant amount of taxpayer money.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., a key force behind the measure that moved through the Senate with the enthusiastic embrace of Roy’s two GOP senators, said the delays have gone on too long. Senate action came after Trump surrendered in his fight with Democrats over aid to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico.
“Now, after the president and Senate Republicans disrupted and delayed disaster relief for more than four months, House Republicans have decided to wage their own sabotage,” Pelosi said.
Democrats said the House might try to again pass the measure next week during a session that, like Friday’s, would otherwise be pro forma. If that doesn’t succeed, a quick bipartisan vote would come after Congress returns next month from its Memorial Day recess.
Rep. Donna Shalala, DFla., said she was upset at Roy’s action. “The fact that one person from a state that is directly affected could object, it’s just irresponsible,” she said. Texas was slammed by record floods in 2017, though not Roy’s San Antonio-area district.
GOP leaders and Trump support the bill.
The relief measure would deliver money to Southern states suffering from last fall’s hurricanes, Midwestern states deluged with springtime floods and fire-ravaged rural California, among others. Puerto Rico would also get help for hurricane recovery, ending a months-long dispute between Trump and powerful Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Trump said Thursday that he will enthusiastically sign the bill, which delivers much-needed help to many areas in the country where he performs well with voters.
“I didn’t want to hold that up any longer,” Trump said. “I totally support it.”
The House drama came less than 24 hours after the Senate passed the bill by a sweeping 85-8 vote that represented a brush-back pitch by a chamber weary of Trump’s theatrics and where some members are increasingly showing impatience with the lack of legislative action.