SW Georgia Disaster Relief Hits Snag In US House
Yesterday we reported that a deal had been reached between the Senate and the White House to free up disaster relief for those impacted by Hurricane Michael. Residents of Southwest Georgia would be among the beneficiaries.
Today, it appears a procedural move in the House is being used to block the measure from reaching President Trump’s desk in an expeditious manner:
???A single House Republican — Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, a former Ted Cruz staffer — just blocked a $19 billion disaster bill that had critical relief for PR, Calif, Texas, Ga & more … and Trump’s support
“He’s holding millions of people hostage,” @DonnaShalala (D) says— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) May 24, 2019
The day is still young. Consider this a developing situation.
About Author
Charlie
Founder of GeorgiaPol.com; Now weekly columnist Very interested in Georgia and Georginas. Interest in politics is waning daily.
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“According to four Republican sources, Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) were in the room with Trump and advising the president against separating his immigration money request from the disaster aid package. But Perdue, a close Trump ally, prevailed.”
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/24/chip-roy-blocks-disaster-aid-funding-1343295
So one wonders if Jim Jordan is playing a trump card (so to speak) here. My opinion is that it wouldn’t be hard to roll David Perdue (politically).
BISHOP PRAISES SENATE PASSAGE AND CONDEMNS HOUSE GOP DELAY OF EXPANDED DISASTER APPROPRIATIONS BILL
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (GA-02) Chairman of the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies issued the following statement after the Senate passed a $19.1 billion disaster aid bill; which was then blocked by a single House GOP member who objected to unanimous consent, keeping the bill from going directly to the President’s desk:
“I am disappointed that Americans continue to be denied the disaster aid they so desperately need,” said Bishop. “While communities from coast to coast and in the territories suffered after devastation by hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and other natural disasters, the Administration and upper chamber played politics with Americans’ livelihoods. Yesterday, after months of delay, the Senate passed an updated bill, which the House was expected to pass by unanimous consent, sending it immediately to the President’s desk to be signed into law.
“Unfortunately, the suffering of Americans will continue thanks to a single House GOP member, who objected to a bill that is certain to pass when the House is back in session. It is unacceptable and cruel to make disaster victims wait even a day longer for critical aid.
“As I said last October after touring the damage from Hurricane Michael with the President, Vice President, and US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, ‘Responding to natural disasters and helping our communities recover is a responsibility we all share regardless of political party.’
“I hope the House will be able to pass the bill by unanimous consent next week, without further sabotage by an extreme wing in the Minority party.”
Rep. Roy’s press release:
May 24, 2019 Press Release
WASHINGTON–Rep. Chip Roy released the following statement regarding his objection to a UC vote the disaster supplemental:
“Today I stood to object to the Unanimous Consent of a $19.1 billion dollar emergency supplemental bill that has been languishing for over 8 months because Speaker Pelosi would rather play politics on impeachment than do the work of the people.
“I objected primarily because had I not, Congress would have passed into law a bill that spends a significant amount of tax payer money without members of Congress even being present in our nation’s capitol to vote on it. Speaker Pelosi knew full well that a disaster bill may be coming from the Senate and yet chose to recess the House and then brought this forward for consent. I stayed in D.C. to object because this kind of swampy practice is what Texans elected me to stand against.
“Secondly, the bill includes nothing to address the clear national emergency and humanitarian crisis we face at our southern border. While Speaker Pelosi has consistently denied the crisis at our border, and thus has denied the humanity of the victims of cartels and other traffickers, she has been insisting that there is no money to satisfy the good faith compromise emergency funding requests from the White House. There is no reason this disaster supplemental should not include the quite modest $4.4 billion request from OMB Director Russ Vought to ensure DHS and HHS do not run out of money while managing the over 100,000 illegal aliens being apprehended and the Unaccompanied Alien Minor Children being unable to be housed appropriately.
“The Speaker however, continues not to care about these children while empowering cartels and lawlessness at the expense of our national sovereignty and the migrants who seek to come here. Democrats should step up and provide the White House the funds it needs to make sure that the migrants coming north can be properly housed, cared for, and processed, and that the cartels who are abusing migrants are no longer allowed to profit so extravagantly off of them.
“Thirdly, on the substance of the bill, I am troubled by the fact it spends over $19 billion that is not paid for when we are racking up approximately $100 million an hour in national debt. This is a bipartisan problem that we should solve in Congress rather than ignore. That is why I am calling for Congress to hold to the spending caps under current law this year.
“Our nation is strong enough and compassionate enough to have a responsive and fiscally responsive approach to help people who are hurting in the wake of natural disasters. We have had months to figure this out and also to do our job to secure our border, but now we are expected to let the swamp continue to mortgage the future of our children and grandchildren – making it less likely they will inherent a stronger and better country with a government capable of defending the nation and responding to disasters such as these.
“I object.”
I love this statement:
“There is no reason this disaster supplemental should not include the quite modest $4.4 billion request from OMB Director Russ Vought to ensure DHS and HHS do not run out of money while managing the over 100,000 illegal aliens being apprehended and the Unaccompanied Alien Minor Children being unable to be housed appropriately. ”
I cannot believe 4.4 billion dollars is “modest”.
So Chip Roy would rather whine about politics than do the work of the people and delay a rare bipartisan bill passage. Did Royboy continue to mortgage the future of our children and grandchildren by voting to give away trillions of tax revenue to the rich and add more spending/deficit and debt @100 mil an hour? This is a disaster relief bill, you dolt, that’s why funding the made up immigration crisis was removed from this bill to be considered separately. He is only concerned with the private sector profiting by immigrants “housed appropriately” rather than respecting their rights to asylum.
Just reaffirms my belief that the Freedom Caucus is the biggest impediment to a functioning government. Boehner should have snuffed these clowns out when he had the chance.
Pointless posturing designed to appease the base and to hell with what’s best for the rest of the country, I wonder where he’s seen this tactic perfected?
It’ll pass when the full house reconvenes, but this is a shitty and unnecessary delay.