LEGISLATION: Path to passage of Harvey relief is unclear

— President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans return to work this week facing enormous pressure to achieve major policy victories and fulfill such basic acts of governance as providing disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, avoiding a default on the nation’s debt and keeping federal agencies open.

So far, there is little evidence of a path to success.

On Sunday, a proposal from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to attach recovery aid to legislation raising the nation’s borrowing limit quickly drew objections from conservative lawmakers.

And Trump and the White House have only recently engaged with congressional leaders, who must navigate the demands of conservatives but also

those of Democrats, who have the votes to derail most legislation in the Senate.

Republicans are scheduled to discuss tax cuts at the White House on Tuesday, Trump’s first direct engagement with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell since early August, when the president criticized the Kentucky Republican on Twitter and in an expletive-laden call. On Wednesday, Trump will meet with leaders of both parties, his first face-to-face meeting with top Democrats since January.

Even before Hurricane Harvey swept across southeastern Texas, the White House and lawmakers faced a series of dire deadlines likely to establish September as the busiest and most challenging month so far in the Trump presidency.

Among the most pivotal decisions is how to avoid a federal default when the government reaches its borrowing limit at the end of the month. Failure to raise the debt ceiling could plunge financial markets and the economy into turmoil.

Lawmakers and the White House also must extend government spending beyond September to avert a federal shutdown. And deadlines to reauthorize a flood insurance program and extend health insurance for low-income children also loom before the end of the month.

Approving a Harvey aid package and beginning talks toward the GOP’s top legislative priority — an overhaul of the tax system — add to the pressure.

Mnuchin’s revelation Sunday on Fox News that Trump hopes to include disaster aid in debt-ceiling legislation provoked conservative lawmakers who were already signaling plans for a rebellion over the entire September agenda if leaders don’t agree to major spending cuts and changes to expensive federal programs such as Medicaid.

Rep. Mark Meadows, RN.C., chairman of the hardright House Freedom Caucus, who had previously warned against attaching a debt-limit increase to Harvey aid, accused Mnuchin on Sunday of reneging on his prior rhetoric.

“I find it interesting that the secretary has long called for a clean debt ceiling and now suggests that we attach something to the debt ceiling vote,” Meadows said. “There should be a clean bill; it’s called the Hurricane Harvey relief bill.”