Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala, recently expressed disapproval over the Senate’s failure to reach a decision on disaster recovery efforts for states who recently faced natural disasters, calling the dispute a “political tug-of-war.”
The Senate has continually disagreed over the level of funding to be provided for Puerto Rico and have yet to reach a decision on how to help states recover from 2018 and 2019 natural disasters.
“Unfortunately, people on both sides of the aisle are blaming each other and refusing to negotiate in good faith — all while farmers and others who were devastated by natural disasters must continue to wait, wondering each day if they’re going to be able to put a crop in the ground this year or to rebuild their homes and businesses,” Jones said.
Last week, Jones was the only senator to support both disaster relief bills that were brought to a vote. When both bills failed, he directly reached out to the president to urge him to make a deal that could pass through Congress.
“Playing politics while lives and livelihoods are at stake just reaffirms Washington’s reputation for dysfunction and partisanship,” Jones said. “We have to do better and that will require both sides to come together and stop pointing fingers.”
