Senate Democrats introduced a new disaster relief bill Tuesday after blocking a GOP measure a day earlier because it did not provide enough funding for Puerto Rico.
The new bill adds $1.1 billion for the U.S. territory, which has struggled to recover from two hurricanes in 2017 that wiped out much of the island’s infrastructure. It would also provide Puerto Rico with more than $600 million in nutrition assistance.
Democrats included $2.5 billion to help southern states recover from recent tornadoes and to aid the Midwest, which has been devastated by flooding.
Overall, the measure provides $16.7 billion in supplemental federal funding for disaster relief.
It’s likely to serve as a starting point in new negotiations with the GOP.
The Republican disaster relief package Democrats blocked Monday included $13.45 billion to states and territories.
The GOP bill included money for Midwestern flood relief and the $600 million in nutrition assistance for Puerto Rico but nothing more for Puerto Rico’s infrastructure repair.
President Trump has signaled to the GOP he isn’t eager to send more federal disaster relief to Puerto Rico and believes states with critical disaster recovery needs are being shortchanged.
Republicans urged Democrats to pass the GOP measure, which Congress has been trying to approve since late last year. The package keeps growing larger as new natural disasters occur and damage piles up.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., accused Democrats of rejecting a bill that included many of their own disaster relief priorities and said it will now further delay funding from reaching states in critical need.
McConnell said the GOP bill is the only one that Trump would sign, enabling money to reach communities quickly.
“I am disappointed that political games carried the day yesterday,” McConnell said Tuesday. “But I assure the American people: Our work on this subject is far from finished.”
Congress provided Puerto Rico billions in disaster relief in 2017, although Democrats say the Trump administration has not allocated all the money to the island.
The Democrats included language in their bill which “mandates that the Department of Housing and Urban Development speed up the release of billions in Community Development Block Grant funding the Trump administration has been unnecessarily withholding from disaster stricken communities.”
