Senate barrels toward showdown vote on disaster relief

WASHINGTON (AP) — A fight between President Donald Trump and Democrats over hurricane relief for Puerto Rico is imperiling a widely backed disaster aid bill that's a top priority for some of the president's Southern GOP allies.

The amount of money in dispute is relatively small, but Trump feels antipathy toward Puerto Rico's government and Senate Republicans are taking a hard line — for now — in denying Democratic demands for more aid for the U.S. territory, which was devastated by back-to-back hurricanes in 2017.

Democrats are poised to block the GOP bill in a showdown Senate vote on Monday afternoon. It's a risky move, but top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York appears confident that a successful filibuster won't kill the bill outright, but drive Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell toward compromise.

McConnell said the Senate measure is the fastest way to get aid to the hurricane-slammed South and the badly flooded Midwest, along with nutrition aid to Puerto Rico, where food stamp benefits have been cut.

"It's our only sure path to making a law with anywhere near the urgency these Americans deserve. It is the only bill on the table with any provision for the Midwest flooding," McConnell said. "And it's the only bill on the table that could earn a presidential signature in time to deliver urgent relief on the nutrition assistance in Puerto Rico."

Democrats say Trump has been slow to release already-appropriated funding for Puerto Rico and has exhibited little urgency in helping the island.

"Just as we leave no soldier behind on the battlefield we help our fellow Americans when there's a disaster, wherever the disaster strikes. We do not abandon them. Period," Schumer said.

Trump weighed in on Twitter Monday to preemptively attack Democrats for blocking the measure.

"Democrats should stop fighting Sen. David Perdue's disaster relief bill. They are blocking funding and relief for our great farmers and rural America!" Trump tweeted.

The $13.5 billion Senate measure mostly mirrors a $14.2 billion measure passed by the House in January, combining aid to Southern farmers, California communities devastated by last summer's wildfire, and rebuilding help for hurricane-hit states such as Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. Hurricane-damaged military bases in Florida and North Carolina would receive rebuilding funds.

Democrats want to add almost $700 million more to unlock further disaster aid for Puerto Rico and several states, including help to rebuild badly damaged water systems. Democrats are also seeking to force the administration to release billions of dollars in rebuilding funds that have already been approved.

McConnell, R-Ky., however, has maneuvered to shut off any opportunity for Democrats to amend the bill.

"I think that's a mistake. I think we have a good package that the House would accept. If we could bring it onto the floor and have a vote on it I think it would pass," said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the Democrats' point man on the legislation. "These are Americans who are suffering. I think we ought to be able to come together on it. So I think it's unfortunate to have just a take-it-or-leave-it bill."

The political momentum for the measure — strongly backed by Trump's allies in Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina, among other states — has only been heightened by massive flooding in Midwestern states such as Nebraska and Iowa, whose nominating caucuses are the first test for Democrats hoping to challenge Trump next year. The GOP measure would make Midwestern states eligible for more aid, and by blocking the bill, Democratic presidential contenders in the Senate are likely to face criticism.

Trump has yet to veto a spending bill despite some tough talk and he has signed off on $600 million to ease food stamp cuts in Puerto Rico. But he poor-mouthed the island's government at a meeting with Senate Republicans last week and suggested Puerto Rico has gotten too much disaster help compared with states such as Texas.

"I have taken better care of Puerto Rico than any man ever. We have $91 billion going to Puerto Rico. We have $29 billion to Texas and $12 billion to Florida for the hurricane," Trump said last week. "They have to spend the money wisely. They don't know how to spend the money and they're not spending it wisely."

Trump's $91 billion estimate, said a White House spokesman, includes about $50 billion in expected future disaster disbursements, along with $41 million that's already been approved.

Caught in the middle are pragmatic Republicans such as Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby of Alabama, who is looking for a deal. Democrats controlling the House have made it clear that the measure won't clear Congress for Trump's signature without additional money for Puerto Rico and badly needed Medicaid funding for the Northern Mariana Islands.

"Let's hope that between now and next week we can keep talking and reach something," Shelby told reporters. "This is a three-legged stool. The House, the Senate and the president are involved in this."