Trump Asks That $8 Billion Harvey “Down Payment” Be Added To Debt-Ceiling Bill
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Sep 2, 2017
Shortly after President Trump backed away from his demand that $1.6 billion in funding for his border wall be included in a continuing-resolution bill to avert a government shutdown, the White House late Friday sent a request for $8 billion in emergency funding for the Hurricane Harvey cleanup effort, and asked that the money be tied to a bill to raise the US debt-ceiling limit. Trump’s request that the two legislative priorities be combined in one bill likely won’t go over well among Congressional Republicans, according to Bloomberg.
Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, the leader of the House Freedom Caucus and perhaps Trump’s most intransigent political adversary, urged lawmakers on Thursday not to bundle the two legislative priorities. In a tweet, Meadows said it’d be “inappropriate” and “would send the wrong message” to use Harvey funds as leverage to force conservatives to vote for a debt-ceiling increase.
The aid money will be needed to shore up the nearly bankrupt FEMA’s finances before some 450,000 Texans file requests for aid. The rising toll of flood-related property damage is expected to quickly deplete the $10 billion left in the coffers of the National Flood Insurance Program.
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