The House voted overwhelmingly on Friday to send a $15.3 billion disaster aid package to President Donald Trump, overcoming conservative objections to linking the emergency legislation to a temporary increase in America\u2019s borrowing authority. The legislation also keeps the government funded into December.<\/p>\n
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. All 90 \u201cno\u201d votes were cast by Republicans.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just the first installment of a federal aid package that could rival or exceed the $110 billion federal response after Hurricane Katrina, though future aid packages may be more difficult to pass. It also kicks budget decisions into December and forces another politically tough debt limit vote next year.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Mnuchin elicited hisses when he told the meeting of House Republicans \u201cvote for the debt ceiling for me,\u201d said Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C.<\/p>\n
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 hike\u2019s as a congressman, pressing Republicans to rally around the disaster aid package.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like \u2018Where am I? What\u2019s going on here?\u2019\u201c Costello said, \u201cif it wasn\u2019t so serious it kind of would have been funny.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mulvaney defended the deal and Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was absolutely the right thing to do,\u201d Mulvaney said. \u201cThe president is a results-driven 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 long-term approach preferred by the GOP leaders that would have gotten the issue fixed through next year\u2019s midterms.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n
Fiscal conservatives have clamored for deep cuts in spending in exchange for any increase in the government\u2019s borrowing authority. The storm relief measure had widespread support, but the linkage with the debt ceiling left many Republicans frustrated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Republican brand, if anything is strong national defense and fiscal sanity. So that\u2019s us. Are we doing anything on fiscal sanity? No,\u201d said tea party Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va. \u201cAnd so Mick (Mulvaney) came over today, the Treasury secretary came over today, and we said, \u2018Do you have a plan for fiscal sanity going forward?\u2019 No. Crickets. So that\u2019s the frustration.\u201d<\/p>\n
But most in the GOP said they weren\u2019t upset with Trump himself.<\/p>\n
Democratic votes are invariably needed to increase the debt limit \u2014 and avert a potential market-quaking default on government obligations \u2014 and Schumer and Pelosi successfully pressed to waive the debt limit through Dec. 8. Democrats are cautious about working with Trump, but hold out hope for legislation on the budget, health care, and shielding young immigrants brought to this country illegally from deportation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is heartening that the White House has finally after eight months realized that if you want to get something done, you\u2019ve got to work with both sides and Democrats are a real force to be reckoned with,\u201d said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va.<\/p>\n
Moderate GOP Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said he\u2019s been encouraging Trump to find ways to work with the Democrats. He was at a Thursday meeting in the White House with lawmakers when the president asked him, \u2018How did I feel the bipartisan deal was going. Did I think it was good?\u2019 I said, \u2018absolutely, we need more of it.\u2019 I said \u2018You and Chuck. The two of you in the room. We can make some good deals.\u2019\u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The House voted overwhelmingly on Friday to send a $15.3 billion disaster aid package to President Donald Trump, overcoming conservative objections to linking the emergency legislation to a temporary increase in America\u2019s borrowing authority. The legislation also keeps the government funded into December. The 316-90 vote would refill depleted emergency accounts as Florida braces for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4250,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4248\/revisions\/4250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}