Congress is ready to take quick action on President Donald Trump's request for $7.85 billion in initial disaster relief for areas hit hard by Hurricane Harvey, both House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Friday.
"Working closely with the President and the House of Representatives, the Senate stands ready to act quickly to provide this much-needed assistance to those impacted communities, and support first responders and volunteers," McConnell, R-Kentucky, said in a statement, while Ryan, R-Wisconsin, tweeted:
Trump's request, submitted by White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, calls for an initial $7.4 billion to be added to FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund, along with an extra $450 million for the Small Business Administration.
However, Ryan and McConnell's statement did not cover another White House request, adding $6.7 billion to a stopgap spending measure, needed to pass Congress by the end of the month.
Ryan told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Congress has until October to act on the debt limit measure.
"We will not default," Ryan told the newspaper. "We’ve got a lot of options on our plate. We’re going to assess those options. We have until October to figure that one out."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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