The House on Friday passed a $19.1 billion aid package to help states and territories recover from a string of recent natural disasters, but the ballooning spending measure is snagged in a dispute with Republicans and President Trump over funding for Puerto Rico and the emergency at the border.
The House approved a string of amendments to the bill, increasing the original $17.2 billion price tag by nearly $2 billion in a matter of minutes. The spending level has nearly tripled since negotiations began late last year.
The bill passed with mostly Democratic support hours after President Trump sent a tweet urging the GOP to vote against it.
“House Republicans should not vote for the BAD DEMOCRAT Disaster Supplemental Bill which hurts our States, Farmers & Border Security. Up for vote tomorrow,” Trump tweeted late Thursday. “We want to do much better than this. All sides keep working and send a good BILL for immediate signing!”
Republicans, he tweeted later, “must stick together.”
The measure passed 257-150, with 34 Republicans voting in favor of the long-stalled bill.
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The two parties have been bickering over the stalled aid package since late last year, when the House, then led by the GOP, passed a $7.8 billion package in December that Senate Democrats blocked.
A significant chunk of the last-minute funding, more than $1 billion, came from amendments added to help the Marines and Air Force rebuild infrastructure badly damaged in 2018 hurricanes.
It’s now far more than doubled in size from the December 2018 bill, partly to address new disasters that have occurred this year.
The additions include $3 billion to help five Midwestern states recover from significant flooding that began in March as well as recent tornadoes that destroyed communities in the South.
Additional funding for Puerto Rico is at the heart of the dispute, but a last-minute effort by Trump to include border security aid has also complicated the talks.
Trump has signaled he wants the package to include $4.5 billion in emergency funding to help the federal government deal with the latest surge of illegal immigrants along the southern border.
Republicans and Democrats have signaled opposition to including border security money in the disaster aid package.
Republicans attempted to amend the House bill with $2.8 billion for the Health and Human Services Department to administer aid to unaccompanied children at the border, but Democrats blocked it.
Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, is calling for more federal funding to help recover from 2017 hurricanes Maria and Irma, which flattened the island’s infrastructure.
The House bill adds $600 million for nutrition assistance plus additional funding to help Puerto Rico rebuild.
It also provides Puerto Rico access to more funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as well as a $25 million Army Corps of Engineers ecosystem project in Puerto Rico. The measure makes Puerto Rico eligible for some of $500 million in water infrastructure resiliency funding.
Republicans, and in particular President Trump, want far less funding for Puerto Rico.
Trump has argued the island has received billions from the federal government and doesn’t need more.
Puerto Rico is overseen by a financial management board because of government mismanagement that has left it billions of dollars in debt.
Senate lawmakers late this week offered Democrats a compromise on new funding for Puerto Rico, but they rejected it, telling Republicans it is too low.
“We put together one with Senate appropriations and made an offer to the Democratic side, and I want to publicly make that known to everyone,” Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said before the House vote.
“I believe we can solve this by next week. Let’s put our committee together, let’s work through the weekend and the beginning of next week and we can be right back here with a debate and bipartisanship,” McCarthy added. “One united vote that will become law that the president will seek to sign.”
The fight over disaster relief funding has delayed aid to areas across the nation devastated by flooding, fires, hurricanes, and tornadoes.
“Iowans need our help,” Rep. Cindy Axne, a Democrat representing the Council Bluffs area, said after addressing severe flooding that has ruined farms and communities in the Midwest.
Rep. Nydia Velázquez, D-N.Y., gave an impassioned speech urging the Senate and Trump to accept the House bill.
“I pray this bill, which rightfully asserts so many other parts of the union of our nation, will motivate the Senate to at last act and the president to sign this badly needed aid into law,” Velázquez said. “This is a matter of life and death for so many in Puerto Rico.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he is hoping to pass a disaster relief package with the House by the end of the month.
“We’re open to additional Puerto Rico assistance,” McConnell said. “They’ve certainly gotten a substantial amount already, but we’re open to discussing additional funding. We need to get this done. We need to pass it out of the Senate before the Memorial Day recess.”
McConnell added, “It’s no excuse to politicize this situation.”
