Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 4/5/19

Communities from California to the Southeast have waited months for additional federal dollars to help them recover from severe weather, including hurricanes and wildfires. But businesses, farmers and others there are stuck in limbo after the Senate failed to advance its version of a relief package this week amid partisan fights over aid for Puerto Rico.

Senators have tried desperately to sway Trump, who remains adamantly opposed to offering further assistance for the U.S. territory, writes POLITICO's Burgess Everett. Democrats have pushed for millions more dollars for the island, which was battered by Hurricane Maria in 2017 and had to cut nutrition benefits last month after Congress missed a deadline to renew funding for the cash-strapped program.

Stalemate setting in? As senators jetted out of town Thursday for the weekend, there were no signs of progress in negotiations, and Congress is scheduled to take a two-week recess in mid-April.
— If a deal isn't struck by then, it could exacerbate the problems for farmers who are already facing major economic headwinds; communities whose budgets are being stretched by disaster cleanup; and Puerto Ricans who receive food assistance.
Midwestern states reeling from floods and Southern states affected by tornadoes are now caught in the middle. The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation said the state's economic damage from last month's catastrophic flooding will likely surpass $2 billion; farmers there will struggle to plant as many as 145,000 flooded acres along the Missouri River.