FL. Republicans Split on Disaster Relief Package

At the end of last week, a disaster relief package to assist Puerto Rico in rebuilding and recovering passed in the Florida House with a 257-150 vote.

Many Democrats supported the bill, and many Republicans voted against the bill. President Trump argued that it would hurt “our states, farmers and border security” because the relief efforts to Puerto Rico have been mismanaged.

However, some Republicans broke with the party and the President to vote in favor of the bill.

Florida Rep. Neal Dunn is one of those Republicans, and on Friday he explained why the vote was necessary.

In a statement, Dunn expressed that “while less than we worked for, this disaster supplemental is a step in the right direction.”

The reason being because “it has been over 200 days since Hurricane Michael destroyed the Panhandle and yet the resilient people in North Florida have had to suffer without adequate disaster relief from the federal government. It is our duty to help our fellow Americans in need.”

In addition, Dunn described that “this disaster relief also included my amendments to increase funding to our armed services. Our military readiness is in crisis and will continue to be if we do not provide the necessary resources to our armed services.”

Making the call for the Senate Democrats that rejected the package in April, Dunn urged “the Senate to immediately take up a disaster supplemental and work with the president to provide much needed relief to those in need.”

However, as previously stated, not all Republicans agreed with the package.

Florida Rep. Ted Yoho instead slammed the bill, expressing that “we are two hundred days and counting since Hurricane Michael hit Florida and there are still Floridians in need. The bill that we voted on today was nothing more than a spending wish list for Democrats and it had little to do with disaster relief.”