Hurricanes add to financial crisis that Congress must deal with before end of fiscal year Sept. 30.

You’d think passing a disaster relief bill for Hurricane Harvey victims would be easy, even for a dysfunctional Congress, and maybe it will be. But there’s also a chance that President Donald Trump’s initial $7.9 billion request for immediate needs in Texas will get hung up in the mess that Congress left for itself to deal with before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

The $7.9 billion that Trump has requested is just a down payment on what Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said could eventually be $180 billion in relief and reconstruction costs. The immediate need is to replenish the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund, which makes grants to individuals and small businesses.

New pressures will arise from billions in federal flood insurance claims, a process complicated by two facts: The flood insurance program is still in debt because of huge claims from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, and authorization for the flood insurance program expires Sept. 30.

House Speaker Paul Ryan says that the FEMA money will be passed and the insurance program will be reauthorized, but details are pending. After flood insurance is taken care of, Congress will have to find tens of billions of dollars more for specific flood reconstruction projects, including infrastructure repair and flood mitigation.

All of this will take place against a backdrop of other critical items that Congress left for the end of the fiscal year. They include funding the government for the next fiscal year and raising the debt ceiling so the United States can pay for things it’s already bought. In the Senate, raising the debt ceiling may be paired with hurricane relief to increase its chance of passage.

There’s also a bipartisan effort for a short-term fix for Affordable Care Act insurance marketplaces. The Children’s Health Insurance Program must be renewed. And the No. 1 item on Republicans’ wish list is tax reform, or at the very least cutting taxes.

America couldn’t really afford tax cuts even before it was confronted with Harvey’s catastrophic damage. And now Hurricane Irma is bearing down on Florida.

September poses a severe test of the demonstrably shaky governing skills of the president and Republican congressional leaders. It also tests the GOP’s commitment, in Congress and in Texas, to limited federal government. In 2015, a University of Texas poll found only 23 percent of Texans held a favorable view of the federal government. No doubt that number is higher today.

There are certain things only a strong central government can do. The debate always has been about where the limits lie and who truly deserves help. For example, are flood victims any more deserving than those who can’t afford health insurance? Not all disasters are natural. The members of The Denver Post’s editorial board are William Dean Singleton, chairman; Mac Tully, CEO and publisher; Chuck Plunkett, editor of the editorial pages; Megan Schrader, editorial writer; and Cohen Peart, opinion editor.