After several weeks of negotiation and haggling between the House, Senate and White House, a compromise on the long-awaited disaster bill finally came through YESTERDAY. The House passed a bill late last week and the Senate finally worked things out and passed their own version of a 19 Billion dollar bill. All indications are that the President has agreed to sign the bill. Everything had been on track to get the bill passed before the Memorial Day Break UNTIL….

The House had to agree on the Senate passed bill rather than sending the bill to conference. It had been expected that since the Senate bill was substantially similar to the House passed bill that a Unanimous Consent vote could be taken for final passage but there wasn’t unanimous consent. A lone congressman from Texas, Chip Roy, expressed objection to the the unanimous consent and therefore blocked passage of the bill for today. Most of the House and the Senate left for a week long break yesterday. There is no way to take a voice vote today.

While there is a technical possibility to have another unanimous consent vote next year, the consensus seems to be that there will be a vote after they return in 10 days. It is largely expected that the bill will pass when they return by a significant margin but as we’ve seen before in the Congress, nothing is etched in stone.

We will likely have to wait to see what happens in what seems to have turned into a soap opera type never ending saga of this disaster bill. Stay Tuned.

In the mean time, we hope you and your family have a great Memorial Day weekend!

DSF