Three lawmakers who personally received federal disaster aid packages for their farms over several years were among the handful of representatives who voted on Sept. 8 against federal relief for the victims of Hurricane Harvey, a post by the blog Republic of Awesome said. The assertion is based on publicly available farm payment data published by the Environmental Working Group in its Farm Subsidy Database.
The blog post said these three, who voted against the hurricane aid package, received the following disaster payments via farms in which they had ownership stakes:
The post also notes that conservative lawmakers who vote against disaster aid packages on principle have pushed for farm aid packages when it comes to their districts. The ROA blog notes that Iowa Republican Steve King “called his no vote on Hurricane Katrina relief his best moment in Congress. But when bird flu decimated the egg and poultry industry in his district, King welcomed the hundreds of millions of dollars in federal indemnity program payments that rebuilt his producers’ flocks.”