Senate passes disaster aid bill after deal with Trump


The Senate easily cleared a long-stalled disaster aid package after Republicans reached a deal with President Trump to drop border-related provisions from the bill.
 
Senators voted 85-8 on the legislation, which provides $19.1 billion in recovery money for a recent slate of wildfires, hurricanes and storms. GOP Sens. Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), Mike Braun (Ind.), Mike Crapo (Idaho), Mike Lee (Utah), Martha McSally (Ariz.), Rand Paul (Ky.), Jim Risch (Idaho) and Mitt Romney (Utah) voted against the bill.
 
The House has already left for the week-long Memorial Day recess. But a Democratic leadership aide said the caucus supports the measure and hopes to clear it by unanimous consent on Friday. 
 
The Senate's vote came hours after GOP Sens. Richard Shelby (Ala.) and David Perdue (Ga.) talked on the phone with Trump, where, according to GOP lawmakers, he told them he would support the bill without the immigration-related language that was a major sticking point to an agreement. 
 
"We've proposed … that we come forth with a clean disaster package, a lot of things off including border security stuff, just disaster, basically. And the president said okay," Shelby told reporters.
Source: The Hill
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