Impact of shutdown remains unclear
Harvey recovery among issues as politicians bicker
As the Texas congressional delegation tried to help broker a deal to end the government shutdown Saturday, concerns and confusion continued over what the real-life impact of the impasse could mean in the Lone Star State if it lasts more than a few days.
One thing was clear, though: There were few, if any, public signs of the shutdown impacting everyday life in Texas on Saturday.
While federal officials reassured that Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts would continue through the shutdown, there were unresolved questions about whether it could add even more delays to more permanent housing repairs Texans are still waiting on.
More than 3,800 federal employees deployed
to help with Texas’ recovery are still on the job and working. And short-term, temporary housing programs are not expected to see any impact for now.
“Disaster recovery personnel are deemed as essential,” said Brian Sullivan, a public affairs specialist from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
But Sullivan said he couldn’t say if the shutdown would have any impact on Texas’ long wait for more permanent housing repair money from the federal government. Congress approved $7.4 billion in relief funding last year, but HUD officials are still working on the rules for how that money will be distributed and how it can be used.
HUD contingency plans in an event of a shutdown leave unclear whether those rulemaking efforts will continue during a work stoppage. Texas officials have lamented that historically it can take HUD more than two years to get that funding out. HUD money in limbo
State officials say that isn’t the only potential delay that worries them. The Texas Land Office said they need language in the federal budget bill that would allow them to use previous HUD disaster funding to help pay for temporary home repairs that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is mostly covering.
FEMA covers 90 percent of those basic repairs to the building structure, plumbing and electricity. But the Texas Land Office is pushing to use HUD funding to cover the final 10 percent. But that cannot happen without specific direction from Congress that remains tangled up in the budget showdown, said Brittany Eck, a spokeswoman for the land office.
Most national parks in the nation — including the 14 in Texas — mostly remained opened but with limited services. At Big Bend National Park, for instance, visitors could still enter the park but the visitor’s center was closed. The Sam Houston National Forest near Huntsville was also largely accessible, officials said.
Similarly, presidential research centers were mostly opened but with some portions closed. At the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, officials said the facility remained in mostly normal operations, but the research room and archival activities administered by the National Archives and Records Administration would be closed during the shutdown.
At the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library Center in College Station, officials are warning the public on its website that archival facilities are closed and some activities cancelled.
At NASA’s Johnson Space Center, about 94 percent of the 3,000 employees were expected to be placed on unpaid leave, shutting down educational support activities and tours.
In Washington, meanwhile, top Texas lawmakers worked with leaders in both parties to end the impasse, even as they continued to accuse each other of playing politics.
Senate Republican sought to pass a three-week, stopgap funding patch lasting until Feb. 8, while Democrats held out for a shorter period to reach a deal on immigration — the main sticking point in the showdown.
“We find ourselves here in a completely unnecessary situation,” Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a key negotiator, said in a floor speech Saturday. “Our colleagues across the aisle have listened to the most extreme elements in their political party and shut down the government over an unrelated immigration issue.”
Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who had sought a shorter-term deal expiring on Tuesday, said he thought he was close to an agreement with President Donald Trump on Friday, only to hear that the president preferred the longer-term GOP plan.
“Negotiating with the president is like negotiating with JellO,” Schumer said. “He can’t stick to the terms.”
After a flurry of dueling speeches, the House moved toward a vote on a rule providing for same-day consideration of bills, laying the groundwork for quick action in case the Senate struck a deal. ‘Manufactured crisis’
But the two sides remained far apart.
Heading the GOP side of the debate was Dallas Republican Pete Sessions, chairman of the House Rules Committee. In an opening speech that sparked objections from Democrats for impugning other lawmakers, he called the shutdown a “manufactured crisis” and a “political game.”
A move to have his words stricken from the record was unsuccessful, but it delayed the afternoon proceedings.
Meanwhile, few House lawmakers appeared ready to cross party lines, any more than they had on Thursday in a largely party-line vote for a temporary government funding measure lasting until Feb. 16.
One of the few was Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar, a Democrat from Laredo, who broke from his party.
“I voted on the House floor in order to continue federal funding to keep the government open,” he said Saturday. “I voted yes, and I will vote to keep it open again.”
At the same time, the campaign arms of both parties went into high gear. The Republicanallied American Action Network announced new ads against Democrats, while the Democratic National Committee announced new digital ads targeting five Senate Republicans, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
Democrats also said they were launching ads against several Texas Republican House members, including U.S. Reps. John Culberson of Houston and Will Hurd of San Antonio.
In a statement, Culberson lamented that the fight over Dreamers — immigrants brought into the country illegally as children — was being used by Democrats as a “political weapon.”
He also accused Democrats of holding up final passage of a Hurricane Harvey relief bill, although the GOP funding measure passed by the House on Thursday did not contain disaster aid.
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat, cited the lack of disaster aid, along the Dreamer impasse, as a reason to oppose the GOP funding measure.
“I cannot in good conscience allow so many families to suffer any longer than they already have,” she said.
But Friendswood Republican Randy Weber, whose district was also heavily damaged by the hurricane, sought to de-link the funding and immigration battles.
“We need to separate politics from policy, and focus on the priorities and deadlines at hand,” Weber said. “We have a job to do.”