Four days before Christmas, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an $81 billion disaster-relief bill to help California wildfire victims and those affected by recent hurricanes.
But the idea of Congress playing Santa Claus to those victimized by 2017 natural disasters died in the Senate, where the bill stalled and won’t be acted on until January at the earliest.
This time, it’s not just Republicans or Democrats holding up wildfire relief. It’s both. Some conservatives think the bill — the largest single outlay for disaster relief in U.S. history — spends too much, while some Democrats say the bill doesn’t do enough, especially for Puerto Rico.