Harvey aid tests officials’ patience
Governor, senators rip $44B request as ‘wholly inadequate’ and far short of promise
WASHINGTON — The White House sent Congress a $44 billion disaster request Friday, falling far short of the aid officials in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico have sought to recover from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.
Though administration officials said they plan to provide additional relief in the coming months as full cost estimates come in, Gov. Greg Abbott and several Texas lawmakers expressed mounting frustration that their requests continue to be reduced or pushed back.
Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, called the funding package “wholly inadequate,” and vowed to work with lawmakers from other affected areas who feel shortchanged by the administration.
“Frankly, after the outpouring of sympathy and the expressions of concern that we’ve heard from the highest levels here in Washington, D.C., we have continually been told to
wait, wait, wait,” Cornyn said Thursday night in anticipation of the latest White House request.
At a news conference in Austin later Friday, Abbott noted President Donald Trump, who toured the Texas storm damage twice, committed to ensuring the Harvey recovery process “is the best recovery from a disaster ever.” The latest funding package, Abbott said, does not meet the mark.
“In order to live up to the president’s goal … to have the biggest and best response ever, it’s going to necessitate both more funding and better strategies,” Abbott said.
Mayor Sylvester Turner called the proposal “a formula for failure.”
“Our city, it seems, is being punished for its efficient Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts and its decision to work, not whine, for its fair share of public money that residents of the region have paid into the U.S. Treasury,” he said in a statement. “The role of the federal government is crucial … and a mere trickle of money won’t be enough to help Houston heal from a deluge.”
The White House proposal represents the third round of storm funding since Hurricane Harvey slammed into the Texas coast Aug. 26, flooding much of Houston and causing an estimated $180 billion in damage along the Gulf Coast, making it one of the costliest disasters in U.S. history.
Abbott brought a $61 billion request to Congress at the end of October, accompanied by a list of storm recovery and flood-control projects specifically for Texas. That visit came shortly after he accused the Texas congressional delegation of getting “rolled” in an earlier $35.8 billion general aid package for disaster recovery in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Abbott’s personal request for $61 billion came after he and the Texas delegation also had worked jointly on an $18 billion special aid package for Texas, which Congress and the administration put off.
In response, Cornyn placed a hold on Trump nominee Russell Vought to be deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, a parliamentary move designed to pressure the White House to secure hurricane relief.
Deficit spending
All told, Congress has approved more than $50 billion for storm relief, including a $15.25 billion emergency Harvey aid package that passed in September as part of a measure increasing the debt ceiling but making no offsetting spending cuts.
The latest disaster request would bring to nearly $100 billion the amount the federal government has laid out for the summer’s series of Atlantic storms and California wildfires.
Much of the controversy surrounding the storm recovery efforts in Congress has centered on deficit spending, particularly in the National Flood Insurance Program, which is nearly $30 billion in debt. Unlike the earlier funding requests, the White House has proposed that the new disaster aid be offset by spending cuts, mainly by extending previously passed automatic cuts in non-defense spending for future years.
Altogether, OMB director Mick Mulvaney, in a letter to Congress on Friday, suggested nearly $60 billion in budget cuts, including funds previously allocated to a number of conservation, highway, student financial aid, and child nutrition programs. Many of the same cuts were included in Trump’s 2018 budget request.
The new storm aid plan comes as Congress confronts a massive year-end spending package, as well as a new effort to raise the debt limit and pass a major tax reform bill.
The press of legislative business has heightened concerns among Cornyn and others that future storm aid could get shortshrift, or get caught up in potential spending impasses.
The new request includes $25.2 billion for disaster relief under the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration. It also includes $12 billion for the Community Development Block Grant disaster recovery program, $4.6 billion to repair damaged federal property, $1.2 billion to help displaced students, and $1 billion for emergency agricultural assistance.
Separately, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced a $5 billion award Friday to help hard-hit areas of Texas to recover from Harvey.
‘Does not come close’
The reaction among Houston lawmakers to the new White House funding package was less than enthusiastic.
Houston Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee said the funding package “does not come close to restoring Houston,” and accused the Trump administration of having “turned its back on Texas.”
Six Houston-area Republican members of Congress, joined by U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold of Corpus Christi, issued a statement calling the proposal “insufficient and unacceptable.”
Separately, Houston Republican John Culberson said the request “shows OMB’s complete lack of understanding of the fundamental needs of Texans.”
And Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz noted that despite the Trump administration’s repeated assurances to provide Texas with the recovery money it needs, in the end the onus will be on Congress.
“The constitutional responsibility to appropriate funding resides with Congress,” Cruz said, “and I will continue to work closely with the entire Texas delegation to ensure our great state has the resources it needs to rebuild and come back stronger than ever.”