Washington
So far, there is little evidence of progress.
On Sunday, a proposal from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to attach recovery aid to legislation raising the nation’s borrowing limit quickly drew objections from conservative lawmakers seeking spending cuts.
And Trump and the White House have only recently engaged with congressional leaders, who must navigate the demands of conservatives but also those of Democrats, who have the votes to derail most legislation in the Senate.
Republicans are scheduled to discuss tax cuts at the White House on Tuesday, Trump’s first direct engagement with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell since early August, when the president criticized the Kentucky Republican on Twitter and in an expletive-laden phone call.
On Wednesday, Trump will meet with leaders of both parties — his first face-to-face meeting with top Democrats since January.
Even before Hurricane Harvey swept across southeastern Texas, the White House and lawmakers faced a series of dire deadlines likely to establish September as the busiest and most challenging month so far in the Trump presidency.
Among the most pivotal decisions is how to avoid a federal default when the government reaches its borrowing limit at the end of the month. Failure to raise the debt ceiling could plunge financial markets and the economy into turmoil.
Lawmakers and the White House also must extend government spending beyond September to avert a federal shutdown.
And deadlines to reauthorize a flood insurance program and extend health insurance for low-income children also loom before the end of the month.
Approving a Harvey aid package and beginning talks toward the GOP’s top legislative priority — an overhaul of the tax system — add to the pressure.
Mnuchin’s revelation Sunday on Fox News that Trump hopes to include disaster aid in debt-ceiling legislation provoked conservative lawmakers who have pushed for spending cuts in exchange for their support for raising the debt limit. These lawmakers were already signaling plans for a rebellion over the entire September agenda if leaders don’t agree to major cuts and changes to expensive federal programs such as Medicaid.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, who had previously warned against attaching a debt-limit increase to Harvey aid, accused Mnuchin on Sunday of reneging on his prior rhetoric.
“I find it interesting that the secretary has long called for a clean debt ceiling and now suggests that we attach something to the debt ceiling vote,” Meadows said. “There should be a clean bill; it’s called the Hurricane Harvey relief bill.”
The leader of the Republican Study Committee, another group of House conservatives, also raised pointed objections Sunday. Rep. Mark Walker, N.C., said in a statement that any debt ceiling increase “should be paired with significant fiscal and structural reforms” and that the need for Harvey aid did not remove that imperative.
“Our obligation is to assist those impacted by this great flood but it’s past time the swamp waters in D.C. begin receding as well,” Walker said. “That starts with being both compassionate and fiscally responsible. These two principles are not at odds.”
All of it comes at a politically perilous time for Trump, the first new president in 40 years to fail to secure a major legislative victory during his first seven months in office. Although Trump remains popular with core supporters, his overall approval rating has hovered below 40 percent as he has inflamed opponents with his handling of the violent protests in Charlottesville, his pardon of controversial former sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona and his plans to scale back protections for undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children.
Trump’s relationships with lawmakers have also deteriorated over the summer. He has lashed out publicly against several Republicans, including McConnell, whom the president blamed for the party’s dramatic failure to fulfill a major campaign promise of the past seven years: repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.
Some White House officials say they are hoping they can avoid the adversarial tone with lawmakers that Trump has used for months, seeking to cut deals over the debt ceiling and spending. There is also widespread agreement about fast-tracking a hurricane relief package — and the White House has even reached out to Democrats, a new tactic after months of clashes.
How to do so remains a sticking point, given the contrasting position of conservative Republicans.
Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said in an interview that the administration’s rapid response to Harvey has intensified the workload.
But he said the White House has seen many of the other challenges coming for months. Congress, he said, waited too long to act on any of them.
“Does Congress have a tendency to wait until the last minute? Yes,” said Mulvaney, a former member of Congress who was often involved in last-minute budget fights. “It’s a challenge but it is not a surprise.”
In an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., offered some clues to how much decision-making still lies ahead, noting that tying Harvey aid to a debt-ceiling or spending bill is “one way to do it” and adding, “I think that’s something that will be decided in the next few days.”
Blunt also noted Congress’ role as a coequal branch of government, perhaps signaling the difficult negotiations to come. “For the Congress to understand fully and the country to understand that these are two separate branches of government, is a good thing,” he said.
If Congress doesn’t pass a bill to authorize spending past September, it will lead to a partial shutdown that closes national parks, sends close to 1 million federal employees home without pay and suspends a number of federal services indefinitely.
Similarly, failing to authorize money for the response to Harvey could freeze recovery assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to thousands of people in Texas and Louisiana.
And if Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling, the Treasury Department could fall behind on its payments to creditors, leading to a stock market crash and a surge in interest rates.
Congressional leaders are planning a number of votes in September. The House plans to vote as soon as this week on a bill to authorize $5.95 billion in emergency funds to respond to the flooding caused by Harvey.
Many House and Senate lawmakers have signaled support for the bill, but conservatives have warned against adding anything else to the legislation that would force them to vote against Harvey relief money.