There Were 17 Senators That Voted Against the Hurricane Harvey Relief Bill

As Hurricane Irma was building strength in the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday, a handful of U.S. senators were voting “No” on a Hurricane Harvey relief bill.

Senators overwhelmingly voted 80 to 17 to approve the bill, which allows for billions of dollars in Hurricane Harvey relief and also funds the federal government through the month of December.

However, many senators did not choose to vote “Yes” on the measure.

Republican Sens. Bob Corker, Steve Daines, Mike Enzi, Joni Ernst, Deb Fischer, Jeff Flake, Lindsey Graham, Chuck Grassley, Ron Johnson, James Lankford, Mike Lee, John McCain, Jerry Moran, Rand Paul, James Risch, Ben Sasse, and Pat Toomey all opted to vote against the Hurricane Harvey relief bill.

Three other senators, Marco Rubio from Florida, Dan Sullivan from Alaska, and Bob Menendez from New Jersey, who is on trial for corruption and bribery at this time, did not vote on the bill at all.

The majority of the senators who chose not to vote in favor of the bill voiced that they were not opposed to the hurricane relief efforts, so much as they were concerned about the added clause of extending the “debt ceiling” responsibilities.

With Hurricane Irma having made landfall in Florida, and already predicted to do as much if not more damage as Harvey, this issue could arise again in the next few days.

Last Wednesday, Florida’s Gov. Rick Scott released a statement on the impending landfall of Hurricane Irma.

As reported by CNN, Gov. Scott said, “If you’re told to evacuate, get out quickly. We can expect additional evacuations as this storm continues to come near our state.”

By emphasizing that citizens should “get out quickly” we can only assume this meant officials were preparing for the worst of the worst.

The issue that arises here, however, is that mass evacuations can cause serious traffic jams that lead to highway gridlock which can extend for miles.

This happened with evacuation attempts of hurricanes in both 1999 and 2005.

“Evacuation orders are going to be given in a timely manner so people have time to evacuate. But if you wait, that’s when the problems are going to happen,” the governor continued.

The storm was predicted to be a category 4 hurricane when it hits Florida, and it appears that at this current time it will only hit at a category 3.

“A storm of this size can have effects statewide, and everyone must be prepared,” Scott said.