Determined to find a deal on providing billions of dollars to states hurt by recent disasters, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told lawmakers to “quit the foolishness” and strike a bipartisan agreement because he plans to hold a vote next week.
The announcement puts pressure on both parties to try to overcome differences that kept a deal elusive for more than six months.
And it signals the GOP is willing to accept more disaster aid for Puerto Rico, the bill’s main sticking point and one that is opposed by President Trump.
If the Senate and House are able to pass a compromise deal by next week, Republican leaders would likely pressure Trump to sign it in order to get desperately needed money to both red and blue states damaged by flooding, hurricanes, and wildfires.
“The biggest sense of urgency I have at the moment is the disaster supplemental,” McConnell, R-Ky., said, referring to the aid package.
Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, was significantly damaged by two 2017 hurricanes and has still not recovered.
Trump objects to additional funding for the island beyond $600 million for nutrition assistance.
Trump has said publicly and privately to senators he believes Puerto Rico, which has a history of serious financial mismanagement, has received enough federal funding already to deal with the storm damage.
“Puerto Rico got $91 billion and I understand they don’t like me,” Trump said at a rally in Panama City Beach, Fla., last week.
But the island has received about $11 billion and is on track to eventually get $40 billion more.
The Democrat-led House passed a $19.1 billion disaster aid package last week that included more funding for Puerto Rico, but it earned only 34 Republican votes and is probably far too expensive overall to win GOP support in the Senate.
But Republicans are more eager than ever to strike a deal with Democrats, even if it means rejecting Trump’s demand that Puerto Rico get nothing more.
“I hope the ice is beginning to break and that it’s fully dawned on everyone that it’s not within the tradition of the Senate to play political games with disaster relief,” McConnell said.
Republicans in the Senate have acknowledged they are likely to agree to more money for Puerto Rico.
“I’ve had it,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., whose state needs some of the funding, said. “I don’t mind helping Puerto Rico more but it has to be reasonable.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Republicans “have moved in our direction,” on providing more money for Puerto Rico.
Congress is scheduled to leave for a recess at the end of next week and McConnell has set it as the deadline for finding a deal.
“I’m not going to send members of either party home to these storm and flood-ravaged states without some action,” McConnell said. “Preferably a deal that the president will sign.”
