WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers returned to Washington on Tuesday facing fast-approaching deadlines, including pressing demands to replenish dwindling disaster aid reserves as Texas and Louisiana dig out from Harvey and as an even more powerful hurricane, Irma, bears down on the U.S.
The to-do list also includes raising the government's debt limit and preventing a government shutdown at the end of the month. Republican leaders met with President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday to discuss another top priority: rewriting the U.S. tax code in hopes of boosting the economy.
"This is more than just tax reform. This is tax cutting," Trump said at the meeting. "We're going to cut taxes, we're going to reduce taxes, for people, for individuals, for middle-income families. We're going to reduce taxes for companies."
First up in the House today is the initial $7.9 billion aid installment to help with immediate Harvey recovery and rebuilding needs in Houston and beyond. Additional billions could be tucked into a catch-all spending bill later in the month that will keep the government running beyond 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 said that after the House passes a "clean" Harvey aid package, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will do just that by adding a debt limit increase to keep the government solvent -- and resolve the politically toxic issue -- past next year's midterm elections.
Later this month will come a stopgap spending measure to keep government agencies operating from the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year into December.
Linking the debt issue to Harvey aid -- pushed by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, among others -- is rankling GOP conservatives and others.
"Somebody who's just been pulled off their roof doesn't want to hear about our internecine squabbles and debates over procedure when they've lost their homes and are trying to figure out where they're going to sleep the next night," said Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa.
The planned swift action on Harvey comes as GOP lawmakers head into the final quarter of the year desperate to notch accomplishments and make headway on a tax overhaul, and the majority party is eager for the chance to turn around its track record ahead of next year's midterm elections.
Trump on Tuesday tossed another tricky issue Congress' way. The administration announced Tuesday that Trump will end protections for young people who were brought into the country illegally as children, but with a six-month delay intended to give Congress time to address the issue. But it was unclear whether Congress could resolve the problem given that it has had several failures in attempts to enact comprehensive immigration changes.
In the Tuesday afternoon meeting on taxes, Trump said, "If we're going to keep momentum going and allow the economy to truly take off as it should, it is vital that we reduce crushing tax burden on our companies and on our workers."
Despite feuding with Trump over the summer as the president criticized him for the Senate's failure on health care, McConnell, who attended the meeting, earlier praised Trump as "very engaged on this issue" of tax changes.
The White House meeting on taxes drew sniping from Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who complained about the GOP's plans to try to write a tax bill on a partisan basis and leave Democrats out.
Information for this article was contributed by Andrew Taylor of The Associated Press.
A Section on 09/06/2017