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The House passed a $19.1 billion disaster-aid package with a bipartisan majority, sending the legislation to the president’s desk after months of wrangling delayed the typically uncontroversial funding. Lawmakers voted 354-58 to approve the measure, exceeding the two-thirds threshold required under a fast-track procedure. Those who opposed the measure were all Republicans. (Duehren, 6/3)

President Trump has said he backed the measure, even though it did not include border money he urged Congress to add. He said he would continue pressing for that as part of separate legislation. With Trump's signature, the legislation would help speed relief funds to communities hit by tornadoes, wildfires, volcanoes, drought, flooding and other disasters. It also includes money for Puerto Rico, which is still rebuilding after 2017 hurricanes devastated significant portions of the island. (Snell, 6/3)

Across both chambers, there was widespread relief that the House had finally passed the measure, capping off one of the most laborious approval processes for emergency relief in recent memory. The package, which was left off legislation that ended the country’s longest shutdown earlier this year, was stymied for months as lawmakers squabbled over how much money to allocate to Puerto Rico’s hurricane recovery over the president’s opposition. Democrats in both chambers were adamant that the commonwealth, which does not have voting representation in Congress, needed more money. (Cochrane, 6/3)

Democrats and Republicans argued back and forth for weeks over how much aid to allocate to Puerto Rico. As negotiations dragged on, Democrats argued that Republicans were short-changing the US territory, which is still rebuilding from Hurricane Maria. Trump, meanwhile, accused Democrats of blocking the bill from moving forward over aid to Puerto Rico and argued publicly that the territory had mishandled relief funds. Negotiations were further complicated over the question of whether to include funding to address the humanitarian crisis at the US-Mexico border. (Foran, 6/3)

The Senate Finance Committee could unveil bipartisan legislation aimed at lowering drug prices as soon as mid-June, Chairman Chuck Grassley told reporters this afternoon. The proposal, which Grassley is negotiating with ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), has not been finalized but is likely to include reforms affecting Medicare Parts B and D, as well as Medicaid, according to committee aides. (Cancryn, 6/3)

The ACLU and other advocacy groups warned today that a draft patent reform bill will allow patenting of genes and genetic tests, hampering research and adding to the expense and difficulty of developing new treatments. The bicameral, bipartisan draft was published last month and will be discussed at three Senate hearings this week and next. It aims to broadly revise federal patent law and was written partly in response to inventors who are threatened by restrictive U.S. patent laws and are threatening to take their intellectual property to other countries, a congressional staffer told POLITICO. (Ravindranath, 6/3)