U.S. Senator Doug Jones looks out on storm damage from March tornado in Lee County, Alabama: Facebook

By Glynn Wilson –

As farmers and victims of floods, tornadoes and hurricanes desperately await financial aid from the federal government, members of Congress took off for a two week Spring Break this week without passing a disaster relief package, stymied in a compromise by a threatened presidential veto over more funding to help the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.

U.S. Senator Doug Jones, the middle-of-the-road Democrat from Alabama, was the only member of the Senate to support both disaster relief bills that were brought to a vote. After both bills failed, he personally reached out to President Donald J. Trump, along with Republican Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, to discuss the need for a disaster aid compromise and urged him to make a deal that could pass both houses of Congress, to no avail.

“I am deeply disappointed that a political tug-of-war has once again delayed much-needed disaster aid to Alabamians and others throughout the country,” Senator Jones said in a statement Thursday afternoon. “For months, I have worked with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to find a solution and I have personally reached out to the president to discuss the urgent need for aid.

“Unfortunately,” he said, “people on both sides of the aisle are blaming each other and refusing to negotiate in good faith — all while farmers and others who were devastated by natural disasters must continue to wait, wondering each day if they’re going to be able to put a crop in the ground this year or to rebuild their homes and businesses. Playing politics when people lives and livelihoods are at stake just reaffirms Washington’s reputation for dysfunction and partisanship.”

Senator Jones, who plans to return to visit Lee County in the coming weeks, which was hit by a major tornado last month, said: “We have to do better and that will require both sides to come together and stop pointing fingers.” 

Senator Jones joined with several of his Republican colleagues back in February to propose a bipartisan $13.6 billion disaster relief package, which would have provided aid to Lee County as a result of the tornado that hit the area March 3, as well as farmers in the Wiregrass area whose crops were devastated by Hurricane Michael last year.

Jones was joined in sponsoring the disaster relief bill by Senators David Perdue and Johnny Isakson, Republicans from Georgia, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, Republicans from Florida, Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, and Dan Sullivan, a Republican from Alaska.

“In Alabama, we’ve seen our fair share of hurricanes, tornadoes and other severe weather over the years, but that doesn’t mean it gets any easier to either experience a disaster or to rebuild after one,” Senator Jones said at the time. “Therefore, I’m proud to join Senator Perdue to introduce this bill and help folks get back on their feet by providing $13.6 billion in additional disaster relief funds. This bipartisan legislation will help Alabama farmers who were hard hit by Hurricane Michael.”

The New York Times and other news outlets called the bill’s failure a “classic” example of “Trump-era Washington gridlock, with profound implications for millions of Americans whose lives have been upended by natural disaster.”

House Democrats backed a $17.2 billion package offering new funds for flood recovery in the Midwest and other disasters that have occurred since they passed a disaster relief funding bill in January as part of the effort to get the government back open after a 35-day Trump shutdown.

The president, still smarting from his defeat during the government shutdown, has claimed that Puerto Rican officials squandered millions of dollars in aid already, and vowed to veto any funding bill that contained more funding for the territory.

“The president has what you call a veto under the Constitution, as you well know,” said Senator Richard Shelby, the Republican from Tuscaloosa and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “The linchpin is Puerto Rico.”

In an effort to jump-start the talks, Shelby and Rick Scott of Florida went to the White House on Thursday afternoon in the hopes of selling Mr. Trump on a compromise. But the House gaveled itself into recess so any potential agreement will have to wait until after Spring Break.

“Senate Republicans have bent to the will of President Trump and torpedoed relief for all disasters because of the president’s bizarre vendetta against Puerto Rico,” said Nita M. Lowey of New York, the chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee and a key champion of the House bill.

“We should not be picking and choosing who gets disaster relief,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, said in a floor speech on Thursday. “When Americans suffer, we all step in.”

That is unless it’s time to head to the beach for Spring Break and the executive branch is led by a president who refuses to compromise.