Florida Senator Marco Rubio was the first to break the news that the Senate had reached an “agreement” over disaster relief funding.
Now the popular senator, who has been fighting his Democratic colleagues to pass much-needed relief for hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico and North Florida, has outlined the details of the bill the he believes will pass both chambers of Congress.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D) and fellow Democrats initially voted against funding, but now according to Rubio, could be on board with this new measure.
According to Rubio, here is what the bill contains:
- It has $19.1 billion in supplemental aid, an increase of $7 billion over the bill passed earlier by the House.
- For #Florida this bill: - Provides $1.67 billion for operations & to begin rebuilding @TeamTyndall - $480 million for timber restoration - $150 million for fishery losses which Northwest Florida will be eligible for a portion of
- $2.4 billion for CDBG Disaster Relief which HUD can use to help Northwest #Florida - An extension of the National Flood Insurance Program until September 30,2019 which was about to expire at the end of this month (continued)
- Disaster Aid bill also contains multiple provisions related to #PuertoRico : - $600 million for disaster nutrition assistance & $5 million for a study to assess the impact of this additional assistance - $304 million in CDBG funds
Rubio then gave President Trump credit for supporting, and agreeing to sign the bill despite of “unreasonable objections.”
-It took far longer than it should have to reach this deal. And @potus deserves credit & thanks for agreeing to sign this bill despite unreasonable objections to his request for more funding to deal with the crisis at our southern border
