Lawmakers returned to Washington Tuesday to fast-approaching deadlines, including pressing demands to replenish dwindling disaster aid reserves as Texas and Louisiana dig out from Harvey and an even more powerful hurricane, Irma, bears down on the U.S.
Must-do measures also include lifting the government's debt limit and preventing a government shutdown at the end of the month. Republican leaders head to the White House later Tuesday to meet with President Donald Trump on another top priority: Rewriting the U.S. tax code in hopes of boosting the economy.
"We have to deal with Harvey, we have the debt ceiling," Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the No. 2 House Republican, said Tuesday on the Fox Business Network. He also cited a short-term spending bill to keep the government running, as well as the budget, and taxes.
First up in the House on Wednesday is the initial $7.9 billion aid installment to help with immediate Harvey recovery and rebuilding needs in Houston and beyond. Additional billions will be tucked into a catch-all spending bill later in the month that will keep the government running past Sept. 30, when the current budget year ends. The administration wants the Harvey money to be linked with legislation to increase the government's $19.9 trillion debt limit and avert a first-ever default on U.S. payments.
Lawmakers and GOP aides say that after the House passes a "clean" Harvey aid package, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, will do just that by adding a debt limit increase to keep the government solvent — and solve the politically toxic issue — past next year's midterm elections. Later in September would come a stopgap spending measure to keep government agencies operating from the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year into December.