The allure of 10 days away from Washington, D.C., for Memorial Day recess has worked again. That, and an implacable Democratic House of Representatives. Donald Trump has agreed to a disaster relief bill without money for his border wall and with $900 million for Puerto Rico. It also provides funding for areas hit by Midwest floods, Hurricanes Florence and Michael, and California wildfires.
A one-page summary of the bill from Sen. Patrick Leahy says the agreement includes nearly $6.5 billion for repairing and rebuilding infrastructure and military and Coast Guard facilities; over $3 billion to farmers and ranchers for crop and livestock loss recovery; $1.65 billion dedicated just to damaged highways; roughly $3 billion in community block grants and economic development assistance to affected communities; $720 million for wildland fire activities; and $128 million for national parks.
Critically, it also includes $909 million in new funding to Puerto Rico and a provision requiring that the Trump administration release the $8.9 billion in already appropriated funds that it’s refused to make available. It also requires that another $4 billion that has already been appropriated for Texas be released. That means that the Democratic House and Senate Democrats won, even though Republican Sen. Richard Shelby pathetically gives all the credit to his dear leader, Trump.
The Senate is slated to pass it Thursday afternoon, with an agreement that the House (which is recessing) will pass it unanimously in a pro forma session Friday.
Thursday, May 23, 2019 · 7:41:06 PM +00:00
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Joan McCarter
And House Republicans work furiously to rebuild that logjam.
They know that they will lose that roll call vote. They know that it means many of their own constituents will have to wait another two weeks for assistance. They also know it gives Trump two weeks to change his mind. Which is probably what’s at work here.