Lawmakers pass Harvey aid bill, raise debt ceiling
WASHINGTON — The House voted overwhelmingly on Friday to send a $15.3 billion disaster aid package to President Trump, overcoming conservative objections to linking the emergency legislation to a temporary increase in America’s borrowing authority. The legislation also keeps the government funded into December.
The 316-90 vote would refill depleted emergency accounts as Florida braces for the impact of Hurricane Irma this weekend and Texas picks up the pieces after the devastation of the Harvey storm. Trump signed the measure later Friday. It’s just the first installment of a federal aid package that could rival or exceed the $110 billion federal response after Hurricane Katrina. It also kicks budget decisions into December and forces another politically tough debt limit vote next year.
White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, a former Tea Party congressman from South Carolina who took a hard line against debt increases during his years in the House, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin faced a rough time when they pitched the measure to House Republicans at a closed-door meeting held just before the vote. Republicans were stunned earlier this week when Trump agreed with Democratic leaders on the short-term debt increase over GOP objections.
Mnuchin elicited hisses when he told the meeting of House Republicans “vote for the debt ceiling for me,” said Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C.
Rep. Ryan Costello, R-Pa., described a surreal scene with Mnuchin, a former Democratic donor, and Office of Management and Budget Director Mulvaney, who opposed clean debt ceiling hikes as a congressman, pressing Republicans to rally around the disaster aid package.
“It’s kind of like ‘Where am I? What’s going on here?’ ” Costello said. “If it wasn’t so serious, it kind of would have been funny.”
Mulvaney defended the deal and Trump.
“It was absolutely the right thing to do,” Mulvaney said. “The president is a resultsdriven person, and right now he wants to see results on Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma and tax reform. He saw an opportunity to work with Democrats on this particular issue at this particular time.”
Trump on Wednesday had cut a deal with Democratic leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi to increase the debt limit for three months, rather than the longterm approach preferred by GOP leaders that would have gotten the issue fixed through next year’s midterms.
Conservatives disliked both options. Voting on the debt limit is politically toxic for Republicans, and the deal will make the GOP vote twice ahead of next year’s midterm elections. Fiscal conservatives have clamored for deep cuts in spending in exchange for any increase in the government’s borrowing authority.