Congress is poised to leave town for the rest of the month without passing a critically needed disaster aid package.
The two parties can’t find a timely accord on the money and are instead flinging partisan accusations against each other to explain the impasse, which has prevented an aid package from passing for eight months as new tornadoes and flooding ravage parts of the United States.
Angry Republican leaders held an impromptu press conference with reporters after the House adjourned for the month, blaming the lack of progress on the Democrats, who they say are focused solely on Trump’s impeachment and investigations into his finances and taxes.
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., said the two parties were close to a deal Wednesday on a disaster aid package but claimed Democrats got distracted with a meeting to discuss whether they should begin a presidential impeachment inquiry.
“Instead of working to actually finalize the deal and get help to families who are in dire need, Speaker Pelosi and her radical left spent hours and hours focusing on trying to impeach the president and harass him and his family,” he said.
Democrats paint a different picture and blame the GOP for pushing to include some of the supplemental funding for the immigration crisis at the southern border the President Trump has requested and many Republicans are seeking.
Pelosi, D-Calif., blamed Trump for “putting in conditions for border funding that is just totally unacceptable.”
She urged the Senate to take up the House-passed, $19.1 billion disaster aid package approved last week, which does not include any of the $4.5 billion in supplemental funding Trump is seeking to help deal with migrants at the border.
“That’s sitting over in the Senate,” Pelosi said. “They could well just pass it and send it to the president.”
A solution could be at hand in the Senate, where the cooperative Senate Appropriations Republicans and Democrats are working on a deal.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Thursday morning urged both sides to drop their “extraneous issues” and bring the legislation to the floor, which he said, is largely settled.
A Senate-passed deal must nearly always be bipartisan due to the 60-vote threshold needed for passage.
“Democrats are willing to work hard to expedite consideration of that agreement. We’re ready to work with our Republican colleagues to pass it as quickly as possible,” Schumer said.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he will not adjourn the Senate until it takes up a disaster aid package. It’s not clear whether a bill will pass, however.
“Wildfire victims in Western states don’t want to hear about House Democrats’ various disagreements with the White House on a variety of issues,” McConnell said. “They simply want the relief they need and have been waiting for. The same goes for the flooded Midwest. The hurricane-ravaged Southeast. The Kentuckians I myself represent. They don’t want to hear about more Washington, D.C., difficulties. They want an outcome.”
