Fails to advance disaster aid...

Senate fails to advance disaster aid package amid Puerto Rico clash

By JENNIFER SCHOLTES and MARIANNE LEVINE

Congress hit a logjam Monday in the months-long quest to deliver aid to disaster-wrought states after President Donald Trump jumped into the fray with complaints that too much federal cash is flowing to Puerto Rico.

The Senate shot down test votes on two competing plans for delivering at least $13 billion in aid to communities hit by hurricanes, wildfires and catastrophic flooding in recent months. Senators voted 44-49 in rejecting the Republican proposal and 46-48 in shooting down the version the Democratic-led House passed in January.

While it is unclear what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will decide to do now with the stalled bill negotiations are expected to continue behind the scenes as lawmakers work to strike a compromise that would send billions of dollars in relief to many of their states.

The failure of both proposals came just a few hours after the president demanded on Twitter that Senate Democrats support the GOP plan crafted by Georgia Republican Sen. David Perdue. “They are blocking funding and relief for our great farmers and rural America!” Trump tweeted.

Negotiations around disaster aid hit a snag last week, after Democrats told Republicans they would not back Perdue’s package unless it matched the House-passed plan on money for Puerto Rico, which was devastated by two hurricanes in 2017. Trump, during a closed-door meeting with Republicans last week, reportedly said Puerto Rico was getting too much storm funding.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said on the Senate floor Monday night that Democrats are “unwilling to help” disaster victims “unless their demands are met.” Congress already gave Puerto Rico billions of dollars last year in aid, much of which the U.S. territory has yet to spend, he said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer noted in an op-ed over the weekend that the Trump administration has yet to disperse nearly $20 billion of that previous recovery aid to Puerto Rico.

The one “glaring difference” between the plans the Senate voted on Monday night, Shelby said, is that the Republican version includes money for disasters that have hit this year, including aid for Southern and Midwestern states affected by recent severe flooding.

Voting against the GOP plan put Senate Democrats running for president in a tough position since Iowa is among the states that would benefit from the disaster aid package. All of the Democratic 2020 candidates opposed the Republican plan except Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who was not present.

“To my colleagues across the aisle who have been spending a lot of time in Iowa lately as presidential candidates — if you vote against moving forward ... how are you going to look Iowans in the eye?" Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) asked prior to the vote.

Senate Democrats plan to introduce new legislation Tuesday, however, that would provide billions of dollars in new disaster funding for communities affected by the Midwest floods and other natural disasters this year, including Iowa, according to a senior Senate Democratic aide. The Senate Appropriations Committee's top Democrat, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), has also filed an amendment to that effect.

The House-passed version did not include that money because the Midwest storms had not yet hit when the House passed its bill.

Democrats chided Senate GOP leaders for ditching some of the funding for Puerto Rico that the House included in its version. The feud over aid for the territory has only been exacerbated by Trump’s involvement, given the president’s history of feuding with leaders of the U.S. territory.

“The administration’s response to Puerto Rico can be summed up in two words: cruel, nasty,” Schumer said on the floor Monday night.

The stall in negotiations comes as some communities have waited months for aid. Recent natural disasters have also complicated the process. Perdue, along with several senators including Democratic Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama, introduced the $13 billion disaster relief package in February. Last week, Shelby introduced an amendment that expanded Perdue’s bill to include eligibility for disaster relief for Midwestern and Southern states. The bill also includes $600 million in nutrition assistance for Puerto Rico.

But Democrats say it’s not enough. Leahy introduced his own amendment last week that would require that the Department of Housing and Urban Development release grant funds already allocated to the island.

Ahead of the vote, McConnell said on the floor that Shelby’s amendment “is the only game in town," since it is the "only bill on the table with any provision for the Midwest flooding and is the only bill on the table that could earn a presidential signature in time to deliver urgent relief on the nutrition assistance needed in Puerto Rico.”

Over the weekend, Puerto Rico’s Gov. Ricardo Rosselló urged the Senate to pass the House-passed bill, which he said, "provides much-needed support to Puerto Rico in addressing critical infrastructure, education, nutritional, and housing needs on the island." He added that the Shelby amendment “falls short of addressing the majority of our most pressing needs.”

Following Trump’s tweet, Perdue praised the president for his support and blasted Democrats for the delay.

“It’s unacceptable that Washington’s intransigence continues to threaten the livelihoods of the very people who sent us here to represent them,” Perdue said in a statement. “Every day we continue debating disaster relief is a day people across the country face crippling uncertainty.”