Senate passes $19.1 billion in disaster aid
WASHINGTON – Senators overwhelmingly approved a long-stalled $19.1 billion disaster aid bill Thursday after the White House backed off its request that the package include more than $4 billion to address the crisis at the southern border.
President Donald Trump also dropped his opposition to additional aid for Puerto Rico. The bill includes $304 million to help the island rebuild its infrastructure – a Democratic priority that Trump for months opposed by accusing leaders of the U.S. territory of being incompetent.
The Senate’s 85-8 vote on the bill ends a stalemate that has slowed relief to victims of hurricanes in the Southeast, wildfires in the far West, floods in the Midwest and Puerto Rico, which continues to rebuild following devastation from Hurricanes Irma and Maria two years ago.
“We have been working on this package for several months, and I am pleased to say that help is finally on the way,” said Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., a key negotiator on the measure whose home state has been waiting for disaster relief.
The Democratic-led House passed a similar package this month and was expected to pass the Senate bill later Thursday.
The bill also includes $605 million in food assistance for Puerto Rico, an appropriation Trump did not previously oppose. There also is a provision requiring the administration to free up another $8.9 billion that Congress had approved earlier, according to the office of Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee.
The deal had been held up for months because the president feuded with leaders of Puerto Rico. At one point, Trump and San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz traded insults over the pace of hurricane recovery. Trump called the mayor “crazed.” Cruz called the president “unhinged.”
A deal in recent days looked close until Trump’s insistence that more than $4 billion to address immigration issues at the southern border be included, a condition Democrats balked at.
Trump said he was willing to drop the condition and pursue wall funding and immigration issues in other bills in order to provide immediate help to southern farmers affected by severe storms, Midwestern communities inundated by floods and other disaster victims.
“They got wiped out. They got hurt badly and I didn’t want to hold that up any longer,” Trump told reporters after the deal was announced.
Trump continues to falsely claim Puerto Rico has received $91 billion in aid.
The amount allocated to Puerto Rico by Congress, however, is far less: $41 billion, according to FactCheck.org. Of that, $11.2 billion has been spent.
Aside from the money for Puerto Rico, the disaster aid bill also includes:
$3.3 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers to repair damaged infrastructure and reduce the risk of future floods and hurricanes;
$3.2 billion to rebuild military bases and coast guard facilities;
$3 billion to support farmers as they recover from crop and livestock losses;
$1.7 billion to rebuild disaster damaged highways;
$128 million for the National Park Service to repair damaged public lands.
“We have been working on this package for se v eral months, and I ampleased to say that help is finally on the way.”
Sen. Richard Shelby R-Ala.