The House on Wednesday passed an $8 billion Hurricane Harvey relief package, sending it to the Senate where GOP leaders planned to attach a measure to increase the debt ceiling.
The House passed the measure easily in a 419-3 vote. Only three Republicans voted against it in apparent protest of the lack of any spending cut offsets: Reps. Justin Amash of Michigan, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Tom Massie of Kentucky.
House lawmakers approved the Harvey measure as the Federal Emergency Management Agency warned its disaster relief budget is about to run dry as it looks to aid people in flood-ravaged areas of Texas and Louisiana.
“The devastation in Texas and Louisiana from Hurricane Harvey warrants swift congressional action,” said Rep. Nita Lowey, of New York, who is the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.
The funding boost also comes as FEMA prepares for the impact of Hurricane Irma, which is now a category 5 storm aimed at the Florida coast.
House GOP leaders told their rank and file in an early morning meeting Wednesday that they could work into Saturday in order to ensure passage of the disaster funding. “We will not leave until this is done,” House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said after the meeting.
The House-passed bill includes $7.4 billion for FEMA’s disaster relief fund and an additional $450 million for the Small Business Administration’s Disaster Loan Program.
“I want to reassure the people of Texas that we are there for them in their time of greatest need,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J.
Despite the easy House passage, Senate Republicans say they plan to attach language to raise the nation’s borrowing limit to the Harvey funding bill once the Senate receives it. They intended to send the legislation back to the House later this week for final approval.
The move would placate the Trump administration, which is eager to raise the borrowing limit before nearing a Sept. 30 deadline imposed by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
House Republicans balked at the move, but the measure was largely expected to pass both chambers.
Democrats further complicated the GOP plan early Wednesday by announcing they will not back a debt ceiling increase longer than three months until Congress first passes legislation to help younger illegal immigrants who are losing protections under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which the Trump administration wants to end for most so-called Dreamers by March. Democrats also want legislation to provide funding for Obamacare.
As of Wednesday morning, it was still unclear whether the Senate GOP will attach a debt limit increase to the Harvey aid package, as had been the plan.
Ryan, meanwhile, called the 3-month limit demanded by the Democrats “unworkable.”
An aide to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., did not respond to a request for a comment on the demand from Democrats.
