WASHINGTON -- The House on Friday again approved an emergency relief bill for farmers and communities hit by hurricanes, wildfires, floods and other natural disasters over objections from President Donald Trump, who has resisted more aid to Puerto Rico and demanded additional money for immigration enforcement.
Thirty-four House Republicans joined their Democratic colleagues in approving the emergency package, which passed 257-150 and would send $19.1 billion in relief and recovery assistance across the country and give a quick cash infusion to farmers swamped by floods and caught in the trade war with China.
All four members of Arkansas' delegation voted against the measure.
The House had passed an earlier $14 billion version of the measure in January, but the legislation has been held up in the Senate in a fight between Trump and Democrats over aid to Puerto Rico.
Since the House measure originally passed, Midwestern floods have added billions of dollars to the government's roster of disaster needs, while a rising wave of Central American migrants seeking refuge from violence in their countries is requiring additional billions of dollars to house and care for thousands of them.
"The bill languished for months in the Senate over assistance for Puerto Rico. And as it sat there, floods battered the Midwest and tornadoes swept the South," said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y. "This legislation attempts to meet the needs of all of America's disaster-stricken communities -- whether in Puerto Rico or the Midwest, California or the Carolinas."
"Disaster‑struck communities can't afford the Republicans' inaction on this," said Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, speaking at a news conference Thursday. "They haven't taken up one bill. They haven't initiated their own bill.
"Hopefully," she added, "the combination of our earlier bill and this bill that addresses more recent disasters will be something that they will let us proceed on."
Senate Republicans on Thursday did offer Democrats some increase in money for Puerto Rico, though it is unclear how much, according to Senate aides familiar with the decision. One Senate aide said it was seen as a promising step for Democrats and that negotiations would continue into the weekend.
Trump took to Twitter on Thursday to urge Republicans to vote against the bill.
"House Republicans should not vote for the BAD DEMOCRAT Disaster Supplemental Bill which hurts our States, Farmers & Border Security," Trump tweeted. "We want to do much better than this. All sides keep working and send a good BILL for immediate signing!"
After the vote, he shrugged off the nearly three dozen House Republicans who broke with him to support the House bill and suggested that a united Republican Party would secure the relief package he wants.
"Great Republican vote today on Disaster Relief Bill. We will now work out a bipartisan solution that gets relief for our great States and Farmers. Thank you to all. Get me a Bill that I can quickly sign!" he tweeted.
GOP FRUSTRATION
Though most Republicans are still voting with the president, some are growing frustrated. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., blasted the White House budget office at a House Agriculture Committee hearing Thursday, saying budget office officials "consider the American farmer and the American farm family nothing but subsidy-sucking freeloaders."
"There's a disconnect in what is actually coming out of the administration and what the administration is telling us that they're going to do," he said. Scott voted in support of the disaster relief bill Friday.
The major sticking point for Trump is the additional funding Democrats included to help Puerto Rico rebuild after Hurricane Maria severely damaged the island and killed 3,000 people.
Trump has complained that $91 billion has been sent to the island since the 2017 hurricane. About $41 billion in aid has been allocated to the island, according to the Office of Management and Budget, while $91 billion -- the number Trump frequently cites -- is the budget office's estimate of how much the island could receive over the next two decades.
The administration has also been criticized for its overall handling of the response to the island's needs for recovery. The Homeland Security inspector general this week determined, in response to congressional inquiries, that the Federal Emergency Management Agency should not have awarded two contracts related to tarp and sheeting -- a decision that not only "impeded Puerto Rican residents' efforts to protect their homes and prevent further damage" but "wasted personnel resources, time and taxpayer money."
Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., the first Puerto Rican woman to be elected to Congress, said in a floor speech that it is immoral and against U.S. values to deny aid to those suffering in Puerto Rico.
"I pray, pray this bill, which rightfully assists so many other parts of the union, of our nation, will motivate the Senate at last to act and the president to sign this badly needed aid into law," Velazquez said. "This is a matter of life and death for so many in Puerto Rico.
"We should be ashamed that the richest country -- the most powerful country in the world -- that we allow children to suffer this way," she added.
FUNDS NOT DISTRIBUTED
Some of the money allocated in the last emergency package passed by Congress in February 2018 has also not yet been distributed across the country. Ben Carson, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, promised under congressional oath last month to release the money by May 1.
That deadline passed, and it is unclear why the money has not yet been disbursed, though legislation introduced in the Senate this week would require the Office of Management and Budget to distribute the money.
Adding a new complication, the White House demanded $4.5 billion in emergency funding for the southwestern border earlier this month and is now pushing to combine the two supplemental spending requests.
Some Republicans said they voted against the bill because it doesn't include border funding.
"This bill does nothing to address this crisis," Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, said. "We have no choice but to work together on this issue. ... Unfortunately, I have to oppose this bill as it currently stands."
But other Republicans, mostly those representing areas devastated by natural disasters, voted to advance the bill.
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., whose state was severely flooded in March, spoke in favor of a bipartisan amendment to add more money for watershed protection and then voted for the underlying bill.
"Our communities are getting back on their feet, but we need this program quickly to address serious and long-term damages to the infrastructure and our land," he said.
Fortenberry was joined by other conservatives, including Texas Reps. Dan Crenshaw and Michael McCaul; California Rep. Doug LaMalfa; and Georgia Rep. Earl "Buddy" Carter.
Republican leadership asked at the last minute to add money to the bill to care for migrant children who cross the border unaccompanied. But Democrats batted it down as an unserious effort to help these children.
"You want to know about unaccompanied kids?" asked Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn. "You should have cared for them last year and every day since," referring to the White House policy last year that resulted in children being separated from their parents at the border.
Democrats have resisted the idea of merging the border and disaster measures, saying that would delay the aid measure and complicate its passage.
Pelosi, however, said in a brief interview that "there may be some pieces" of Trump's border request that could be added to the disaster aid measure in endgame negotiations. "We'll see."
Information for this article was contributed by Emily Cochrane of The New York Times; by Colby Itkowitz of The Washington Post; and by Andrew Taylor of The Associated Press.
A Section on 05/11/2019