House to vote on Harvey aid package Wednesday

The House on Wednesday will vote on supplemental appropriations for Hurricane Harvey disaster relief, according to a senior House leadership aide.

The news comes one day after House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said the House Appropriations Committee introduced a new bill to match President Trump’s first request for relief funding for Hurricane Harvey.

{mosads}“Families and communities affected by Hurricane Harvey have a long road ahead, and the House will be with them every step of the way,” Ryan said.

“The president has made clear Texas and Louisiana will have the resources they need, and this package is our first step of keeping that promise.”

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday that he and Trump believe the debt ceiling should be tied to Harvey aid, a move which the chairman of the Republican Study Committee said Monday could put the relief package in jeopardy.

“The alarming trajectory of our debt imperils all supplemental appropriations for dealing with disasters like Harvey in the future,” Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.) said in a statement.

“If we resort to just kicking the can down the road on the debt, it only shows that Republicans do not take the problem of our $20 trillion debt seriously.”

Harvey first made landfall on Aug. 25 as a Category 4 hurricane. It has claimed the lives of more than 50 people as of Saturday, according to The Houston Chronicle.

Trump has visited Texas twice since the storm first made landfall on the Gulf Coast.