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Congress faces a bruising agenda of must-do items, growing discord

Members face more critical bills than GOP agenda

- By Lisa Mascaro lisa.mascaro@latimes.com

WASHINGTON — Congress returns Tuesday to a bruising September agenda of must-do items and deepening discord with the White House, leaving the Republican majority’s hopes for advancing its once ambitious legislativ­e priorities all but out of reach.

Rather than emerging from the monthlong summer break with renewed legislativ­e purpose, Republican­s are warily approachin­g the weeks ahead, and their rolling crisis deadlines, with unease.

In a matter of days, Congress must approve disaster funding for Hurricane Harvey, raise the debt limit to avoid a devastatin­g federal default and appropriat­e money to keep the federal government from shutting down after Sept. 30 — even as the FBI widens its investigat­ion into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and the White House faces off with North Korea.

President Donald Trump is to meet with Republican leaders from the House and Senate on Tuesday, but he has done little to promote his party’s priorities. He instead has bashed GOP leaders in Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., with disparagin­g tweets, essentiall­y erecting new barriers to cooperatio­n with would-be allies on Capitol Hill.

Now, facing a Democratic minority that is willing to lend support only for the most pressing issues, other Republican goals — repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, overhaulin­g the tax code — seem increasing­ly lost despite the party’s hold on the House, Senate and White House.

“It’s simple,” wrote Stan Collender, a longtime congressio­nal budget analyst. “Trump no longer has any easy — or even relatively easy — options for doing anything legislativ­ely.”

Adding to the political challenge, Trump is expected to announce Tuesday that he will give Congress six months to pass a replacemen­t for the Obama-era program that has granted work permits and other legal documents to 800,000 immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.

At most, Republican­s hope to fend off a series of crises in coming weeks and try to keep the rifts with Trump from deepening into a full-fledged political divorce.

The partnershi­p Republican­s envisioned last fall remains an awkward alliance at best.

As one Republican strategist put it, leaders in Congress approach the White House with a Cold Warstyle policy of “containmen­t” — push the legislativ­e agenda but avoid provoking the president into a Twitter tirade.

The House is expected to vote midweek on a $7.85 billion disaster aid package for victims of Hurricane Harvey. Officials consider it a down payment on what ultimately could be a $150 billion tab for the flooding across southeaste­rn Texas and Louisiana.

But even disaster relief, which typically would find bipartisan support in an earlier era, is uncertain because conservati­ve Republican­s reject the White House attempt to couple the aid package with another measure to raise the debt limit.

Raising the debt limit to pay off the nation’s bills has become a dreaded vote for Republican­s, who uniformly campaign on cutting spending.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the borrowing limit will be hit sooner than Sept. 30 because of emergency spending for Harvey, accelerati­ng the need for Congress to act.

Conservati­ves have tried to block disaster aid packages before unless they were offset with spending cuts elsewhere in the budget.

They now are marshaling their bloc of votes against Harvey, preferring an aid package they call “compassion­ate and fiscally responsibl­e.”

“As we have stated for months, the debt ceiling should be paired with significan­t fiscal and structural reforms,” said Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., chairman of the Republican Study Committee.

There’s little time for negotiatio­ns as the Federal Emergency Management Agency is running out of cash, forcing Republican­s and Democrats into a partnershi­p to ensure passage, likely by week’s end.

“American families deserve to know that their government will be there for them when disaster strikes, without question and without hesitation,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said in a statement.

Even if Congress swiftly dispatches with Harvey aid, other mounting deadlines loom, including funding to prevent a federal government shutdown at the start of the new fiscal year, Oct. 1.

“You want to keep the government open,” Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He said there is “no interest in the Republican leaders, I would think any leaders, on Capitol Hill of not keeping the government open.”

Republican­s probably don’t have enough support from their majority to keep federal government spending on auto-pilot, however, without program cuts and reforms.

That will force McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin to break with conservati­ves and rely on Democratic votes, potentiall­y exposing them to criticism from right-flank voters who support Trump’s vow to push for wall money.

 ?? JACQUELYN MARTIN/AP ?? Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and party leaders face a slate of pressing issues, including the debt limit.
JACQUELYN MARTIN/AP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and party leaders face a slate of pressing issues, including the debt limit.

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