It is a classic Trump-era Washington gridlock, with profound implications for millions of Americans whose lives have been upended by natural disaster.
House Democrats, backed by their Senate counterparts, are determined to secure more resources for citizens they believe have been unfairly maligned by Trump: A $17.2 billion package introduced this week in the lower chamber would offer new funds for flood recovery in the Midwest and other disasters that have occurred since their first package passed in January, as part of an effort to reopen the government.
For his part, the president, still smarting from his defeat after the government shutdown, has told lawmakers that Puerto Rican officials have squandered millions of dollars already, and said he would not agree to any new funding.
“The president has what you call a veto under the Constitution, as you well know,” said Sen. Richard C. Shelby, R-Ala., chairman of the Appropriations Committee.
“The linchpin is Puerto Rico,” he added.
In an effort to jump-start the talks, Republican senators, including Shelby and Rick Scott of Florida, headed to the White House on Thursday afternoon in the hopes of selling Trump on a compromise. But with the House already out for recess, any agreement will have to wait until lawmakers return.
The pressure to get something done, and quickly, is rising by the day, from farmers in the Southeast who are still grappling with large crop losses from Hurricane Michael in October, to people in Puerto Rico going hungry due to food stamp cuts, to officials in small-town Iowa and Missouri who are still bailing out from some of the worst floods in recent memory.
“People are anxious to get back to their lives, and they need help right away,” said Joe Lear, the northwest director for the University of Missouri Extension, who has been helping to coordinate the response to the inundation of small, rural communities that had been losing population even before the floods.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.