Trump strikes deal on debt limit, Harvey aid
President bypasses GOP to accept 3-month Democratic proposal.
President DonWASHINGTON — ald Trump struck a deal with Democratic congressional leaders Wednesday to increase the debt limit and finance the government until mid-December,
undercutting his own Republi- can 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, partisan bat
tle 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 bigger 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 fric
tion between the president 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 authorize 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 A day earlier, Trump had rescinded a program enacted by President Barack Obama protecting such immigrants on the grounds that it went beyond a president’s authority, but called on Congress to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 meet-
ing with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force
One en route to a speech on taxes in North Dakota, with- out 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 some- thing 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 state- ment, Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., declared, “The Pelosi-Schum- er-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 short-term
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 Manage
ment Agency, and $450 mil- lion 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.
“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.”