[Daily Caller] Hurricane Harvey has inadvertently provided Congress with an opportunity to raise the debt ceiling, Axios reports.
Republican leadership in the House is reportedly planning to pass a "clean" bill that would provide $7.85 billion for emergency relief efforts, which would satisfy both the president’s demands for funding and for a bill that has no extraneous measures attached. Once the bill makes its way to the Senate, leadership is planning to attach a debtlimit increase before sending it back to the House.
The administration announced in late August that it wants lawmakers to pass a "clean" debt ceiling increase, meaning a piece of legislation that raises the debt limit with no additional measures attached.
Leadership faces a few major tests in the coming weeks, and raising the debt limit is only one. Republicans in Congress must also figure out a way to keep the government funded past Sept. 30 and are angling to push a tax reform bill through both chambers and onto the president’s desk by December. |