WASHINGTON _ Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer on Wednesday said Democrats would propose an amendment to a $13.45 billion disaster aid package that would block the Justice Department from carrying out President Donald Trump's push for a court ruling invalidating the 2010 health care law.
The move is another threat to consensus on a supplemental spending bill that leaders hoped could be negotiated in a bipartisan manner, but talks have until now been weighed down by disagreement over the package's size and scope. Senate Democrats' strategy introduces a new hurdle and is part of a broader push by Democrats to steer public attention toward health care.
Democrats have also criticized items the Republican-drafted bill leaves out, such as additional funds for Puerto Rico and other territories affected by 2017 hurricanes. It's unclear, however, if lawmakers will keep up their disagreements on the package or if Democrats will lean in favor of letting the disaster aid bill through after a series of amendment votes.
House Democrats, who pushed a broader $14.2 billion version through their chamber in January, have already pledged to push for additional funds in a conference committee to work out differences with the Senate. The Senate is considering its GOP-drafted disaster aid measure as a substitute amendment to the House-passed bill.
The Justice Department late Monday filed a brief supporting a lower court ruling in the case of Texas v. Azar that declared that the entire health care law should be invalidated after the effective end of the requirement that most people have coverage.
That broadened the administration's earlier position that only the parts of the law that ensure people with pre-existing conditions cannot be denied or charged more for insurance should fall without the "individual mandate."
District Judge Reed O'Connor ruled last year that the entire law should be eliminated after the 2017 tax law ended the penalty for not having insurance coverage. A group of Democratic state attorneys general led by California's Xavier Becerra appealed the decision. The House is also a party to the law's defense.
Schumer, D-N.Y., called the Trump administration decision "a moral and institutional outrage," and said his amendment to the disaster bill "will very simply prohibit the Department of Justice from using any funding to litigate the downfall of (the health care law) in circuit court."
Schumer also took aim at Republicans and the president for reported comments on limiting aid to Puerto Rico during the Senate GOP policy luncheon Tuesday.
Schumer said the Republicans and Trump were "refusing" to accept "common-sense proposals" on aid for Puerto Rico as well as the Northern Mariana Islands, which Schumer said were "the same proposals that passed the House."
"These are people who are hurting. What the president is doing with Puerto Rico is disgraceful _ disgraceful, but typical of his view to divide, to pick winners and losers," Schumer said.
When he introduced the new disaster aid package Tuesday, Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard C. Shelby, R-Ala., cited input from Democrats on its contents and stressed that it would provide additional relief for Midwest states suffering from flooding. He said he hoped Democrats won't "stand in the way just because it does not include every single provision they wanted."
Senate Majority Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also said Tuesday there would be an opportunity for a subsequent disaster aid bill to take care of any needs unaddressed in the current round.
