CONGRESS: Relief bill could get caught up in Senate’s war over the budget
“The most powerful story of Harvey ... are the thousands of ordinary men and women that just stepped up to save their neighbors.” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas
WASHINGTON — Amid the stories of misery, hope and heroics along the stormravaged Gulf Coast, the U.S. House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday for an emergency $7.85 billion aid package for Hurricane Harvey, the first down-payment on recovery efforts that in the coming weeks could top $120 billion or more.
“The message is very simple,” said U.S. Rep. John Culberson, a Republican representing storm-flooded Houston. “Help is on the way.”
Final passage is considered all but certain, but the path could get complicated as it goes to the Senate, where there are concerns the bill could get entangled in the annual congressional budget wars.
Senate leaders said their version of the relief legislation could increase the funding beyond what was approved by the House.
The 419-3 House vote belied strong divisions behind the scenes as President Donald Trump and congressional leaders worked out a deal tying speedy approval of the money to a Democratic proposal to lift the debt ceiling and fund the government for just three months.
The legislation to carry out that agreement, which still requires approval of both the House and Senate
in the coming days, could set up another round of brinksmanship in December. That’s when lawmakers would once again be called on to fund the federal government and increase the borrowing limit.
The Senate is expected to attach the Harvey relief funding to a debt-limit vote by the end of this week. Conservative sin the House and Senate, including Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, have voiced concern about linking the two issues, which Cruz called “unrelated matters.”
Senior Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the Republican Majority Whip, said he supports the linkage as a way to immediately replenish needed funds for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
“The important number is zero,” Cornyn said in a Senate floor speech rallying support for the storm aid. “(That’s) the amount of time we have to lose.”
In recent years, many conservatives in Congress have taken a hard line on debt-limit increases — once considered routine — using them as leverage to force corresponding spending cuts. But White House officials and GOP leaders in Congress have pressed for a quick resolution to the debtlimit issue. Their aim has been to remove the threat of a federal government default in the wake of a natural disaster in the Gulf, and possibly another one coming behind Hurricane Irma.
Trump is anxious to get on to other things. “We believe that helping to clear the decks in September enables us to focus on tax reform for the American people,” said Marc Short, White House director of legislative affairs. “We need to get the economy growing again and that’s what we need to focus on.”
Com pounding the closeddoor horse-trading around the storm relief has been the need to pass a comprehensive 2018 spending bill that avoids a government shutdown at the end of September, the end of the government’s fiscal year.
Deal ‘will be very good’
That, too, got thrown into talks earlier Wednesday at the White House between Trump and congressional leaders of both parties.
“We essentially came to a deal, and I think the deal will be very good,” Trump told reporters later on Air Force One. “So we have an extension, which will go out to December 15th. That will include the debt ceiling, that will include (stopgap funding), and it will include Harvey … because everyone is in favor obviously of taking care of that situation. So we all very much agree.”
Republican leaders had originally sought a longer debt-ceiling extension, pushing the politically toxic issue past the 2018 elections. But after a meeting that included House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Trump seemed to favor the Democrats’ short-term extension.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer issued a statement suggesting they might use the debt limit and other must-pass legislation to press for other Democratic priorities, including legislation granting legal status to so-called Dreamers, immigrants brought into the country illegal ly as children.
Ryan called the threemonth extension “ridiculous” and accused the Democrats of playing politics with hurricane relief and the debt limit.
Some members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus also voiced objections to tying a Harvey aid package to any debt limit extension — no matter the duration. In the end, the initial House vote on Harvey aid got only three “no” votes, cast by GOP Reps. Justin Amash of Michigan, Andy Biggs of Arizona, and Thomas Massie, a tea partyaligned libertarian Republican from Kentucky.
Gov. Greg Abbott thanked lawmakers on both sides for passing what he and others called a “down payment” for future relief efforts to help the Gulf Coast recover.
Abbott has said the state may ultimately need more than the $120 billion that the U.S. spent on Hurricane Katrina recovery. The bill that cleared the House Wednesday would provide an initial $7.4 billion for immediate disaster relief and another $450 million for Small Business Administration disaster loans. The Senate version of the bill is expected to add even more money.
A FEMA spokesman said that as of early Wednesday the agency had received 617,116 applications for assistance, with an approved funding amount of nearly $180 million. Harvey is believed to have destroyed more than 100,000 homes.
The federal government has agreed to take on 90 percent of the costs for overtime, debris removal, rebuilding roads and bridges and other expenses related to Hurricane Harvey, state and FEMA officials said Wednesday. Typically, the federal government takes on 75 percent of the costs, leaving 25 percent to the local government. Abbott’s office took credit for negotiating a 90-10 split instead that would save local governments 60 percent of typical reimbursement cost.
The federal government has also agreed to reimburse the state for 100 percent of the money spent on emergency protective measures — such as paying overtime pay for police and firefighters — in the first 30 days of the storm response, said FEMA spokesman Marty Bahamonde.
‘Your brother’s keeper’
In a passionate floor debate, members of the Texas congressional delegation in both parties emphasized the moral imperative for quick action to alleviate the suffering and begin the recovery.
“You can’t be your brother’s keeper without keeping your brother,” said U.S. Rep. Al Green, a Democrat from flood-soaked Houston.
Said Republican U.S. Rep. Ted Poe of Humble: “Let this vote show that we will vote not for politics, but for people.”
The Texans’ pleas for aid were accompanied by stories of hope and bravery. They included multiple references to the so-called Cajun Navy and other civilian volunteers who joined spontaneous rescue efforts.
“The most powerful story of Harvey, I believe, are the thousands of ordinary men and women that just stepped up to save their neighbors, that went and grabbed a boat or a jet ski or anything that could float and went into harm’s way to pull people out of life endangering situations,” Cruz said in the Senate .“Hundreds and hundreds of rednecks in bass boats. Texas at its very finest ... All these guys in duck waders, fearlessly walking into the charging waters, pulling people out, one after the other, after the other.”
Lawmakers from across the nation rallied behind the Harvey aid, even though some Democrats from New York and New Jersey chided Texas Republicans, including Cornyn and Cruz, who had opposed a final aid package for Hurricane Sandy, which hit the East Coast in 2005.
Some Democrats, however, singled out Culberson as the only Texas Republican who had supported the full Sandy request, which others opposed as either bloated or not urgent.
“Today we are all Americans,” Culberson replied, “arm-in-arm.”