North Carolina lost 44 lives and was dealt an estimated $17 billion in damage from Hurricane Florence.
Seven months later, needed aid from Washington, D.C., isn’t coming our way and the reason sickens us to no end.
A $14 billion aid package was left on the table as congressmen went home for a two-week Easter vacation. The package would have provided critical agriculture disaster relief for farmers in the Old North State, grants for rural communities impacted by Florence, restoration of highways and other critical infrastructure damaged, and sent hundreds of millions of dollars to badly damaged Camp Lejeune.
Also in it, there was aid for fire-ravaged communities in California, military bases and timber interests in Florida, cotton farmers across the South, and pecan, peach and blueberry farmers in Georgia. Alaskans would have been helped in their recovery from a powerful earthquake in November. Puerto Rico, hit with back-to-back hurricanes in 2017, would also have been helped.
Democrats were upset Republicans stuck with President Trump and refused to add more funding to help Puerto Rico rebuild its water systems or help its government with more generous disaster aid terms.
Trump says the island has gotten too much help compared to states such as Texas. Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader from New York, claims Democrats have supported helping everyone, yet the party filibustered the package to its idle state when it didn’t have more aid for Puerto Rico.
Schumer led that opposition.
“While we were successful in providing an initial down payment for North Carolina, many families, farmers and our military communities still need more federal assistance and time is of the essence,” said Sen. Thom Tillis. “Minority Leader Chuck Schumer needs to stop the partisan political posturing so we can reach a deal. North Carolinians have already waited long enough for the federal resources they need to recover and rebuild.”
Interestingly enough, the House had passed a $14 billion package in January. But look to the southern border with Mexico for where that one went; the battle over Trump’s wall shut down the government, and that aid package was a part of the collateral damage.
Four months later, congressmen went home still without a done deal.
“Too many families are still waiting on help to rebuild their homes, small businesses are working overtime to meet another tourist season, and our military bases are in desperate need of repairs to maintain readiness,” said Sen. Richard Burr. “These delay tactics have to end, and the Senate must take up the disaster relief bill immediately upon its return.”
A Georgia Republican usually loyal to Trump, Rep. Austin Scott, gave a floor speech before lawmakers departed. “Never before,” he said, “have we seen American communities that were wrecked with catastrophes neglected like this.” He also said, “It seems the president has moved on.”
The Beltway, once again, has sickened us to no end.