Lone Republican blocks disaster aid bill
Texas lawmaker objects to lack of border money. Measure includes relief for California fires
WASHINGTON — A House conservative complaining of Washington’s free-spending and opaque ways blocked a long-overdue $19-billion disaster aid bill on Friday, extending a tempest over a measure that includes money for fire-ravaged areas of California.
Texas Republican Chip Roy, a former aide to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), objected to speeding the measure through a nearly empty chamber, and complained that it did not contain any of President Trump’s $4.5-billion request for dealing with a migrant refugee crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border.
“It is a bill that that includes nothing to address the international emergency and humanitarian crisis we face at our southern border,” Roy said.
Democrats said the House would try again to pass the measure next week during a session, like Friday’s, that 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 disappointed with 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 last spring, though not Roy’s San Antonio-area district.
“This is a rotten thing to do. This is going to pass,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.).
Besides the funds for California, the relief measure would deliver money to Southern states suffering from last fall’s hurricanes and Midwestern states deluged with springtime floods.
Puerto Rico would also get help for hurricane recovery, ending a months-long dispute between Trump and powerful Democrats including Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York.
Trump said Thursday that he would enthusiastically sign the bill, which delivers much-needed help to many areas in the country where he performed well with voters.
The House drama came less than 24 hours after the Senate passed the bill by an 85-8 vote that represented a brushback pitch by a chamber weary of Trump’s theatrics and where some members are increasingly showing impatience with the lack of legislative action.
Trump said he favored the bill even though $4 billion-plus to deal with the humanitarian crisis involving Central American migrants border had been removed.
“I didn’t want to hold that up any longer,” Trump said. “I totally support it.”
Much of the money would go to Trump strongholds such as the Florida Panhandle, rural Georgia and North Carolina, and Iowa and Nebraska. Several military facilities would receive money to rebuild, including Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.
Disaster aid bills are invariably bipartisan, but this round bogged down. And a late-week breakdown on the Senate’s appropriations panel left important work for lawmakers when Congress returns next month.
After months of fighting, Democrats bested Trump and won further aid to Puerto Rico, the U.S. territory slammed by back-toback hurricanes in 2017.
Talks this week over Trump’s border request broke down, however, over conditions Democrats wanted to place on money to provide care and shelter for asylum-seeking Central American migrants. Talks were closely held and the opaque process sometimes left even veteran lawmakers in the dark.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) accused Democrats of insisting on “poison pills” that made the talks collapse. But his office wouldn’t go on the record to specify what they were. Other Republicans, especially those trying to project a bipartisan image for next year’s campaign, were more circumspect.
“Right now the total dollar amounts are pretty close on border security. Democrats and Republicans are pretty much in agreement about it,” said Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.). “We’re just trying to work out some detailed language, but we didn’t think we could wait any longer to get this done.”
Schumer played a key role up to and during fastpaced developments on Thursday that propelled the measure through the Senate and appeared before reporters to take a victory lap after the vote — while McConnell gave a speech lamenting how long the process took and casting blame at Democrats for killing the border aid package.
“This wasn’t money for the wall, or even for law enforcement. It was money so that the federal government could continue to house, feed and care for the men, women and children showing up on our southern border,” McConnell said. “Money for agencies that are currently running on fumes.”
All sides agree that an additional bill of more than $4 billion will be needed almost immediately to refill nearly empty agency accounts to care for migrants, though Democrats are fighting hard against the detention facilities requested by Trump.
The president also rushed to try to claim credit, though his budget office never submitted an official request for the disaster aid. But he talked up the aid in a recent trip to the Florida Panhandle, his best region in a state without which it’s virtually impossible for him to win reelection.
“Well, we’re going to get the immigration money later, according to everybody,” Trump said. “I have to take care of my farmers with the disaster relief.”