Miami Beach residents brace for Hurricane Irma as the deadly storm barrels toward southern Florida. (Zoeann Murphy,Dalton Bennett/The Washington Post)As Irma churned toward the Florida coast, two Republican lawmakers from the state voted against a $15 billion hurricane relief bill, saying that although they want aid to storm victims, they have concerns about other provisions of the measure. Twenty-seven lawmakers, including 11 House Republicans from Florida, did not vote, as many were in their home state preparing for the hurricane. Five Florida Republicans remained in Washington for the vote. And unlike some previous disaster relief legislation, these funds are to be spent immediately, and are properly targeted to assist the areas impacted by Hurricane Harvey and potentially Hurricane Irma,” Rubio said in a statement Thursday.

Source: Washington Post September 09, 2017 20:02 UTC