VALDOSTA — United States Sen. David Perdue is pushing Congress to approve a bipartisan disaster relief package for people affected by natural disasters.

Perdue stopped by South Georgia last week to give an update on where Washington is on the bill that would provide about $13.6 billion in overall relief efforts and relief for farmers recovering in the wake of Hurricane Michael.

Along with Vice President Mike Pence, Perdue toured the damage caused by Michael and saw the devastation first hand.

“What we’ve been working on since the hurricane, since October, is trying to get disaster relief to them,” Perdue said. The bill “got caught up in the last 25 percent funding for the government and that was confused by the border security debate, which led to a government shutdown.”

The money for the relief was then tied up in the shutdown and just sat there, he said. 

That’s when Perdue and fellow Georgia senator Johnny Isakson got involved. 

“We’ve been working it feverishly,” Perdue said. “We now have the different parties, who wanted different things, got it worked out. … This is job number one, now, is to get this bill on the floor of the Senate and get it passed.”

The bill is expected to be voted through the Senate this week and make its way to the House sometime in March, he said.

Many farmers affected by the hurricane took out short-term loans before they lost everything. Some of those loans would have expired at the end of February, which is why passing the bill is a time-sensitive matter, Perdue said.

“I know, as a business guy, it’s hard to get a back-to-back bridge loan, and not only that, it’s very expensive,” he said. “So, this money has got to flow.”

Perdue said the financial crisis is one of the reasons he ran for office. The issue with disaster relief being tied up in the government shutdown is just an example of Washington dysfunction, he said.

The problem, he said, is the way the government is funded, and Perdue said he plans on tackling that issue directly.

He said he formed a group of Republicans and Democrats who looked at best practices across the world. They looked at countries, companies and states. There are 44 states with balanced budget laws and have no problem passing a budget.

“The purpose of the legislature is to fund the government, and if they don’t, they don’t go home,” Perdue said.

He will push for no representative, including the president, getting paid while a shutdown is in effect.

This is not how it works at the federal level. 

If Congress doesn’t pass a budget, its members can go home and pass a continuing resolution, essentially delaying the whole process. Perdue said Congress has passed 187 continuing resolutions in 45 years and has shut the government down 21 times.

This year, he said he and the bipartisan committee plan on pushing forward bills that would make it easier to fund the government. 

“I think we’ll see some changes,” Perdue said. “It should be a politically neutral platform.”

Thomas Lynn is a government and education reporter for The Valdosta Daily Times. He can be reached at (229)244-3400 ext. 1256