Congress’ disaster-relief package — traditionally the sort of thing that passed easily — was needlessly delayed for months. Donald Trump had some specific demands related to border funding and excluding aid for Puerto Rico; Democrats balked; and so the bill languished.
Two weeks ago, however, the clouds parted. As regular readers know, Trump caved, clearing the way for final passage.
A small group of House Republicans managed to delay the bill for another week — it’s not at all clear why they bothered — but yesterday, the legislative process came to an end.
The House on Monday evening passed the Senate-approved $19 billion disaster aid measure that three conservative Republicans had taken turns blocking in separate votes over the past two weeks.
With the 354-58 vote, the bill will now be sent to President Donald Trump for his signature, which can be delivered via auto-pen while he’s on a state visit to the United Kingdom.
The final roll call is online here. Of the 58 members who voted against the relief package, all 58 were Republicans, though most of the GOP minority voted with Democrats.
Just minutes after the House vote, Donald Trump published a tweet that said, “House just passed the 19.1 Billion Dollar Disaster Aid Bill. Great, now we will get it done in the Senate!”
That’s not quite right.
As the president probably ought to know, after he retreated two weeks ago, the Senate took up the disaster-relief bill and passed it, 85 to 8.
The bill then went to the House, which passed the same measure yesterday afternoon, which means all it needs now is Trump’s signature.
The president deleted his confused tweet last night.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."