美国国家公共电台 NPR Senate Reaches $19 Billion Deal For Disaster Aid Without Border Wall Funding

Senate Reaches $19 Billion Deal For Disaster Aid Without Border Wall Funding

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Across the country, other states are still recovering from their own disasters - flooding in the Midwest, wildfires in California, hurricanes in the Gulf¹. And after months of waiting, it looks as though they will finally get relief from the federal government. The Senate passed a $19 billion disaster aid package this evening. President Trump² has signed off on the plan, and negotiators say House Democrats³ have, too.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: This way our farmers from not only Georgia, Alabama, different places, some in Florida - but if you look at what happened in Nebraska and Iowa and a lot of different places, they got wiped out. They got hurt badly. And I didn't want to hold that up any longer. So the answer is I totally support it. I'd like to see it happen.

KELLY: This after months of argument between Democrats and the president over whether the bill should include additional money for Puerto Rico and how much money should go towards the southern border. NPR congressional reporter Kelsey Snell is tracking this from Capitol Hill. Hey, Kelsey.

KELSEY SNELL, BYLINE⁴: Hi there.

KELLY: So the money in this bill is meant to help communities hit by disaster as recently as this year but as far back as 2017. Why did it take so long?

SNELL: So they have been negotiating parts of this bill for several months now, and part of the problem was that President Trump just did not want to approve more money for Puerto Rico. Even a lot of Republicans that I talked to privately⁵ said that they thought they could have had a deal long ago if only the president would have said yes. They were hesitant to sign off on anything only to have the president say, well, no, I'm not going to go along with this. And none of the negotiators have been able to explain to me what's changed between just a few days ago and now. It's important, remember, that the House has already passed more than one version of this.

KELLY: Right.

SNELL: And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said last week that the Senate would vote on something this week even if the president didn't sign off, and it really took until this afternoon to get that agreement.

KELLY: So a little bit of detail on what exactly is in this bill - who's going to get what kind of funding?

SNELL: Yeah, so this isn't a blank check for emergency management to FEMA. It has specific provisions to speed money to some of the hardest-hit areas. Now, that includes things like $3 billion for farms, places that were hit by flooding in the Midwest, even areas in the South. There's also new hemp⁶ crop insurance starting in 2020, which may not seem like it's related to a disaster (laughter).

KELLY: No.

SNELL: But...

(LAUGHTER)

SNELL: But it is...

KELLY: Sell me on this.

SNELL: No, but it is a big priority for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. There's also $20 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention so that they can assess the environmental hazards related to these disasters. And that's just a small part of it.

KELLY: As we mentioned, this is including money for Puerto Rico over the president's objections. How much?

SNELL: Yeah. Essentially⁷ it is what Democrats have been asking for, what they started with at the beginning of weeks of - or months of negotiations⁸. There's about $600 million in nutrition assistance for Puerto Rico and about $300 million for a program called Community Development Block Grants. That's essentially rebuilding money for low-income communities in Puerto Rico.

KELLY: And what about the question of money for the border? We know Republicans wanted that money, wanted security money. Democrats wanted humanitarian⁹ aid. How did that shake out?

SNELL: Yeah, so that was one of the things that was really holding this up towards the end. It was something they were trying to work out between the House and the Senate, but it wound up just being too controversial, and they couldn't get an agreement. They basically couldn't agree on how much or what humanitarian aid would even cover. But I'm told by Senator Richard Shelby, who is the Republican in charge of Appropriations¹⁰ here in the Senate, that they're going to try to do it in some other bill.

KELLY: Speaking of other bills, before I let you go, what does all this mean for the budget talks that were supposed to be happening this week?

SNELL: Well, so far - no progress that we're aware of. They're still trying to get some agreement to lift these big cuts that are supposed to go into effect at the end of September. The goal is to make sure that those cuts never happen and they don't happen for two years. But there's a lot of disagreement on domestic spending in particular, which is a major priority for Democrats.

KELLY: Thank you, Kelsey.

SNELL: Thank you.

KELLY: NPR's Kelsey Snell on Capitol Hill.

1 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

2 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

3 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 privately   

adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地

参考例句：

• Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
• The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。

6 hemp   

n.大麻；纤维

参考例句：

• The early Chinese built suspension bridges of hemp rope.古代的中国人建造过麻绳悬索桥。
• The blanket was woven from hemp and embroidered with wool.毯子是由亚麻编织，羊毛镶边的。

7 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

8 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

9 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

10 appropriations   

n.挪用（appropriation的复数形式）

参考例句：

• More commonly, funding controls are imposed in the annual appropriations process. 更普遍的作法是，拨款控制被规定在年度拨款手续中。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
• Should the president veto the appropriations bill, it goes back to Congress. 假如总统否决了这项拨款提案，就把它退还给国会。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件