Just when we thought all was going well in Washington, D.C. for a major disaster air package to be passed by both houses of Congress, a glitch.
On Friday, one member of the U.S. House of Representatives decided to make a statement about border security and shut down the entire process of gaining a presidential signature on a $19 billion disaster package.
Most House members had left town Thursday, before the Senate passed a $19 billion dollar disaster aid package on an overwhelming 85-8 vote. Meeting with just a handful of members in a so-called ?pro forma? session Friday morning, Texas Republican Chip Roy blocked a procedural move by Democrats to pass the Senate bill by unanimous consent
?If I do not object, Congress will have passed into law a bill that spends $19 billion dollars of taxpayer money, without members of Congress being present, here in our nation?s capital, to vote on it,? Roy said.
Roy and some Republicans also objected to more federal borrowing to pay for the aid and to Democrats denying the president $4 billion for border beds for a flood of illegal immigrants.
?There?s no reason this disaster supplemental should not have included the quite modest, $4.4 billion that Director of OMB Voight sent to Capitol Hill, to ensure DHS and HHS do not run out of money, which they?re slated to do, while managing the over 100,000 illegal aliens crossing our border, being apprehended, and unaccompanied minor children, being unable to be housed appropriately,? Roy said.
Roy then made the formal, verbal objection on the floor that was needed to block passage by unanimous consent.
The full House will be back in session after the holiday, and will likely have the votes then to send the bill to the President, who plans to reluctantly sign it. The measure includes $3 billion for farm-related losses of crops, dairy, on-farm stored crops, prevented planting and more, covering the historic Midwest floods and earlier storms in the Southeast and Puerto Rico, and wildfires in the West.
The combination of disaster payments and crop insurance benefits or Non-Insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program would be limited to 90-percent of a farmer?s loss. Disaster payments to farmers who don?t buy crop insurance will be limited to 70-percent of their loss. The disaster aid package also includes a provision making industrial hemp eligible for whole-farm insurance policies starting next year.
Passing the bill had been delayed months because of a battle between President Trump and Democrats over disaster funding for Puerto Rico. The battle also involved funding the President wanted for the southern border. Those funds were left out of the final bill.
