Trump seeks US$7.85bil in aid

US leader calls for debt limit action before it’s too late

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has asked Congress for an initial US$7.85bil (RM33.5bil) for Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts, the White House budget director said, adding that failure to raise the budget ceiling may hinder disaster relief spending.

In a letter to US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said the request included US$7.4bil (RM31.5bil) for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund and US$450mil (RM1.92bil) for the Small Business Administration’s disaster loan programme.

“This request is a down payment on the president’s commitment to help affected states recover from the storm, and future requests will address longer-term rebuilding needs,” Mulvaney said.

Trump had been expected to request US$5.95bil (RM25.3bil) for the recovery effort after Harvey flooded areas of Houston and other parts of Texas.

The White House has said it would make multiple requests for aid from Congress to fund the Harvey recovery effort.

White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert told reporters on Thursday that aid funding requests would come in stages as more became known about the impact of the storm.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has said his state may need more than US$125bil (RM533bil).

Bossert said the Trump administration wanted Congress to pass the disaster relief measure on its own and not add it to other measures, such as the effort to raise the debt ceiling.

The US government has a statutory limit on how much money it can borrow to cover the budget deficit that results from Washington spending more than it collects in taxes. Only Congress can raise that limit.

Mulvaney urged Congress to act “expeditiously to ensure that the debt ceiling does not affect these critical response and recovery efforts”.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran said in a statement that his panel “will move swiftly to consider requests for relief funding as it receives them”. — Reuters

Wading through their woes: Residents carrying a bucket to their flooded home in Port Arthur, Texas, to recover some of their belongings. — AFP

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