CRISIS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “As Congress returns to work this week, absent some members whose states were hit by Hurricane Irma, a leading question is whether last week’s burst of bipartisanship will prove to be durable.
President Donald Trump, who made a deal with Democrats on disaster relief and the debt limit, returned Sunday [9-10-17] to the White House after monitoring Hurricane Irma from Camp David. He told reporters he planned to head to Florida ‘very soon’ to assess the storm’s damage.
U.S. House lawmakers canceled Monday votes to accommodate colleagues affected by the storm.
When Congress picks up its agenda again, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R., Ariz.), who is managing the National Defense Authorization Act, aims to authorize $640 billion in military spending. That would break the $549 billion spending cap for fiscal 2018 imposed by a 2011 law, and be in addition to $60 billion in authorized spending that doesn’t count toward the caps.”
-Eli Stokols, “Test of Bipartisanship Will Have to Wait, as Storm Dominates Attention,” The Wall Street Journal online, Sept. 10, 2017 07:50pm