CRISIS/NATIONAL DEBT/TEXAS: “U.S. lawmakers are expected to pass a large aid package for victims of Hurricane Harvey, but specifics of the plan and its price tag are unclear as Congress awaits a funding request from the Trump administration.
Rain continued to pound Houston and the Gulf Coast on Monday [8-28-17] as President Donald Trump said he expected rapid federal action to help fund a costly recovery. He plans to visit Texas on Tuesday to see storm-hit areas…
Historic flooding from Harvey, which came ashore in Texas last week as a powerful Category 4 hurricane and is now a tropical storm, has killed at least seven people in Texas and was expected to drive 30,000 from their homes.
Wall Street analysts estimated insured losses of up to $20 billion, making Harvey one of the costliest storms in history for U.S. insurers…
Congress will return next week from summer vacation, with the hurricane complicating an already difficult fiscal situation with the federal budget and Trump’s Mexican border wall proposal.
Current government funding runs out on Sept. 30. Congress must approve a measure to keep the government funded and prevent a shutdown. Trump threatened last week to shut down the government if Congress did not agree to $1.6 billion in funding to start building his proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border…
Congressional Republicans have not spelled out their plan for dealing with the budget and a related, must-pass increase in the federal debt ceiling. Some aides and analysts have speculated that those issues might be swept into a single piece of legislation, possibly including Harvey aid…
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long said more than 450,000 people were expected to seek disaster assistance because of catastrophic flooding.”
-Susan Cornwall and Patricia Zengerle, “Congress weighs Harvey aid package, awaits Trump,” Reuters, Aug. 28, 2017 02:47pm