GOP congressman blocks disaster relief for his storm-ravaged home state of Texas

Americans across the country reeling from hurricane, flood, and wildfire damage will have to wait longer for relief, after freshman Republican Rep. Chip Roy objected to an aid bill’s passage on Friday.

Roy thwarted the bill’s passage by objecting to the unanimous consent motion on the bill. Unanimous consent allows a bill to be passed without a roll-call vote. But given that most of the House has left town for the Memorial Day recess, there weren’t enough lawmakers on Capitol Hill to overcome Roy’s objection and hold a vote on the bill — thus thwarting its passage.

Roy said he objected to passing the bill without a full roll-call vote, and also objected to the fact that the bill doesn’t include funding for border security.

Roy’s disruptive move is hard to fathom for a few reasons.

First, Roy is a member of Congress from Texas — which was devastated by flood damage from 2017’s Hurricane Harvey. His objection will make people in his own state wait longer for disaster relief.

And second, the Senate overwhelmingly passed the bill on Thursday, after Trump dropped his objections to the inclusion of funding for Puerto Rico in the relief package. Trump also backed away from his call to include border security funding in the legislation.

The Senate passed the package by an 85-8 vote — an extremely bipartisan figure that suggests the bill was uncontroversial.

The House will almost certainly have the votes to pass the aid package when it returns from the Memorial Day recess on June 4.

Roy’s objection on Friday, however, means that storm victims will have to wait until then for more aid funding to come through.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.