Disaster aid bill stalls in U.S. Congress over Puerto Rico

The Republican-controlled Senate took two procedural votes on Monday that both failed. The first was on a Republican bill offering $13.5 billion in disaster relief for states that included $600 million in nutrition assistance for Puerto Rico. The failure of both bills sends lawmakers back to the negotiating table as the Trump administration’s response to Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico in September 2017, receives increased scrutiny, including from more than a dozen Democrats vying to take on the president in the 2020 elections.