Analysis: As climate change gets worse, so does Congress’ ability to fund disaster relief
By Amber Phillips Amber Phillips Reporter for The Fix covering Congress, statehouses Email Bio Follow May 24 at 2:21 PM California wildfires. Severe flooding in the Midwest. A hurricane in the Florida panhandle. Puerto Rico still struggling to recover from 2017′s Hurricane Maria.
There are a few reasons for the politicization of disaster aid, says Molly Reynolds, a congressional expert at the Brookings Institution who carefully follows spending debates: A 2016 bill to fight the Zika virus, for example, got held up when conservatives attached a provision to restrict federal grants to provide services like birth control to women in Puerto Rico. While discussing this particular disaster relief bill, Reynolds wrote to The Fix in an email, “Congress debated agricultural items, the Violence Against Women Act, and something involving the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund” that Sen. Richard C. Shelby wanted. Plus Trump’s border wall.
That’s not always the party line today, but budget austerity is more of a factor than it used to be. The cost of today’s $19 billion bill is one reason Rep. Chip Roy objected to Friday’s unanimous consent vote. The process was another: Unanimous consent is a type of voting that allows bills to pass without most lawmakers being in the chamber. But it can get held up by just one lawmaker objecting.
Once it got over that hurdle, Roy held it up the House. Even though the president was okay with no border wall funding, Roy wanted it.
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