Trump seeks RM33.5b Harvey aid from Congress

HOUSTON: Rescuers searched painstakingly through flooded neighbourhoods across southeastern Texas on Friday for people stranded by Storm Harvey’s deluge as United States President Donald Trump asked Congress for US$7.85 billion (RM33.5 billion) in federal disaster relief.

The storm, one of the costliest to hit the US, has displaced more than one million people, with 50 feared dead from flooding that paralysed Houston, swelled river levels to record highs and knocked out the drinking water supply in Beaumont, Texas, a city of 120,000 people.

The Trump administration, in a letter to Congress, asked for a US$7.85 billion appropriation for response and initial recovery efforts. White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert on Thursday said aid funding requests would come in stages as more became known about the impact of the storm.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott had said his state might need more than US$125 billion.

Bossert said the Trump administration wanted Congress to pass the disaster relief measure on its own and not add it to other measures, such as the effort to raise the debt ceiling.

The US government has a statutory limit on how much money it can borrow to cover the budget deficit that results from Washington spending more than it collects in taxes. Only Congress can raise that limit. Reuters