Governor Jerry Brown co-signed a letter with Florida Governor Rick Scott, Texas Governor Greg Abbot, and Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló urging Congress to pass an $81 billion disaster relief package that stalled after it passed the House in 2017. The bill is held up in the Senate, where Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) seeks to incorporate the disaster supplemental into broader budget negotiations.
Governors from states impacted by wildfires and hurricanes are concerned disaster relief is losing priority on Capitol Hill, lost in the high profile partisan fights over immigration reform and the budget caps. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), the second-ranking Senate Republican, is blaming Democrats for holding the disaster relief bill hostage over unrelated issues while Senator Schumer criticizes the package for providing insufficient disaster relief. The disaster bill will not see movement until an agreement is reached on the budget, at which point California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris will join lawmakers urging Congress to attach the package to the budget deal or the omnibus bill.