Mnuchin: Congress must tie Harvey aid to raising debt limit

The White House also signaled that it plans to request an additional $6.7 billion to replenish the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund as part of an anticipated stopgap spending measure to fund the government before it runs out of money at the end of September.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, however, said on CNBC Thursday that the debt limit deadline probably won’t change by more than a couple of days, if at all.

When Congress returns to Washington after the August recess, an unusually heavy workload greets lawmakers, dominated at first by the need to keep the nation’s fiscal house in order.

The Trump administration is hoping to avert a risky congressional standoff over raising the debt limit by tying the measure to what they hope will be a popular bill providing billions in emergency funding for Hurricane Harvey relief.

Hurricane Harvey devastated Texas, but could bring some fiscal order to Washington where Republicans and Democrats will need to put political differences aside in order to approve spending to fix the damage from flooding in and around Houston. The president would prefer to avoid entangling the borrowing limit deliberations with a battle over paying for the wall that could erupt when lawmakers consider an expected temporary funding package in September or a full-year funding package likely in December.

Trump’s action is one of several ways the president, who has called climate change a hoax, has tried to wipe away Obama’s efforts to make the country more resilient to threats posed by climate change.

Harvey has brought the heaviest rainfall in United States history, soaking Texas with more than 52 inches since it first made landfall last Friday.

That $5.5 billion in Harvey relief funding is only the tip of the iceberg.

According to the Associated Press, the White House plans to ask Congress for a $5.9-billion down payment for initial recovery efforts. The initial Harvey aid package is just the first portion for immediate disaster response like housing assistance, cleanup and FEMA-financed house repairs. Rewriting the mammoth, unfathomable tax code has been a Republican priority for years, and should be easily within reach at a moment when the GOP controls both chambers of Congress.

House Republicans might pass an omnibus spending bill, but it will die in the Senate, said Jason Pye, the legislative director of FreedomWorks, a conservative group. “So, we need to put politics aside”.

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows told the Washington Post on Thursday he would oppose combining the debt increase with hurricane relief. Billions of dollars in Harvey aid are an unexpected cost that at least raises the potential that Congress will have to act earlier than expected to increase the government’s borrowing authority.

Estimates show that Superstorm Sandy, which struck the U.S.in October before the presidential election, caused more than $71 billion in damage.

“I don’t think there’s any indication that Harvey has changed Trump’s mind on much of anything”, Kondik said.