NORFOLK, NE — U.S. Senator Ben Sasse says Nebraskans might be waiting a while still to see the benefits of a federal disaster relief package.
Sasse was in Norfolk Friday night for a community conversation. Before the event, he said the government moved quickly in the first two steps of providing relief: issuing a disaster declaration and adding flood response to an existing disaster relief bill. As far as passing the bill, Sasse says politics are holding up relief dollars.
“Democrats in the Congress started demanding even more funding for Puerto Rico,” Sasse said. “Puerto Rico had a disaster that was truly horrific, but the amount of relief they’ve gotten was really, really substantial and Nebraska hasn’t even gotten our first down payment on the long term.”
He says he was a part of talks in the Senate Wednesday night and his feeling was that “politics will continue for a while.”
Looking at Sasse’s personal future, he says his family will meet the first week of August to discuss if he should seek re-election, but not to expect him to drop out.
“I’m definitely on track planning to seek re-election and plan to formally announce that this summer,” Sasse said.
Sasse all but squashed any rumors of vying for the University of Nebraska President job recently vacated by Hank Bounds. He joked he would only take the position if the Regents let him sell Runzas at Memorial Stadium and serve Scott Frost as a grad assistant.
