Trump bypasses GOP on debt, Harvey aid
He reaches across the aisle to resolve a major dispute for first time.
President Donald Trump struck a deal with Democratic congressional leaders Wednesday to increase the debt limit and finance the government until mid-December, undercutting his own Republican allies as he reached across the aisle to resolve a major dispute for the first time since taking office.
The agreement would avert a fiscal showdown later this month without the bloody, partisanbattle that many had anticipated by combining a debt ceiling increase and stopgap spending measure with relief aid to Texas and other areas devastated by Hurricane Harvey. But without addressing the fundamental underlying issues, it set up the prospect for an even big- ger clash at the end of the year.
In embracing the three-month deal, Trump accepted a Democratic proposal that had been rejected just hours earlier by House Speaker Paul Ryan. Trump’s snap decision at a White House meeting caught Republican leaders off guard and reflected friction between the pres- ident and his party. After weeks of criticizing Republican leaders for failing to pass legislation, Trump signaled that he was willing to cross party lines to score some much-desired legislative victories.
As if to reinforce that point, Trump aligned himself with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the top House Democrat, in embracing legislation to autho-
rize younger undocumented immigrants to stay in the country. A day earlier, Trump had rescinded a program enacted by President Barack Obama protecting such immigrants on the grounds that it went beyond a president’s authority, but called on Congress to legalize the program.
“We had a very good meeting with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to a speech on taxes in North Dakota, without mentioning that Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had also attended. Regarding the immigration program, Trump said, “Chuck and Nancy would like to see something happen, and so do I.”
Republican leaders looked grim but resigned after the meeting and attributed Trump’s deal to a need for unity after Hurricane Harvey struck Texas and as Hurricane Irma barrels toward Florida.
“Look, the president can speak for himself, but his feeling was that we needed to come together to not create a picture of divisiveness at a time of genuine national crisis, and that was the rationale,” McConnell said.
But conservatives were clearly miffed. In a terse statement, Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., declared, “The Pelosi-Schumer-Trump deal is bad.”
Congressional aides said privately that Republicans went into the meeting at the White House proposing an 18-month deal on government spending and the debt limit, only to run into resistance from the Democrats. They then proposed a six-month deal as a compromise, but the Democrats insisted on a three-month agreement. Trump then surprised the Republicans by concurring.
The agreement came after the House overwhelmingly approved nearly $8 billion in disaster aid in response to Harvey, taking quick action to help victims of the devastating flooding in Texas. The aid measure passed 419-3. The “no” votes were Republican.
The disaster aid proved to be an engine strong enough to pull along tricky if shortterm solutions to a slew of pressing fiscal matters that faced Congress this month, including raising the statutory debt limit.
The House vote took place five days after the White House requested about $7.9 billion in emergency aid. The vast majority of that money would go to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and $450 million would go to the Small Business Administration’s disaster loan program. And with Irma barreling toward Puerto Rico and Florida, more disaster aid is likely to be needed quickly.
“Help is on the way,” said Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas.
McConnell had voiced support for a speedy vote to approve the disaster aid in that chamber. But the move to link an increase in the debt limit to the hurricane measure may still lead to a showdown with House conservatives.
Aside from the particulars of a debt-limit increase, just the idea of raising the government’s borrowing capacity in tandem with providing Harvey aid has drawn opposition from conservatives, who have pushed for any debt limit measure to be coupled with fiscal changes intended to rein in spending.
“Attaching the debt ceiling to it is using a catastrophe in Texas as leverage to pass something that certainly there should have been an alternative plan to pass,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., chairman of the House Freedom Caucus.
Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, expressed frustration at what he viewed as a missed opportunity to address the nation’s debt.
“We’re grateful that in Texas the floodwaters continue to recede,” he said on Fox News. “But here in the swamp, it looks like they continue to rise.”
Dan Holler, a spokesman for Heritage Action for America, a conservative group, said the White House and congressional leaders were putting conservative lawmakers — including those from Texas — “in a pretty difficult political situation” by essentially daring them to vote against a measure containing both Harvey aid and an increase to the debt limit.
“Linking those two things together is not something that any conservative wants,” Holler said. But, he added, “there doesn’t seem to be a will in Congress or in the administration at this point to tackle some of those major drivers of our debt and deficit problem.”