[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Page 12872]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




HURRICANE HARVEY DISASTER RELIEF, PREVENTING A DEFAULT, AND FUNDING THE 
                               GOVERNMENT

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, as I said yesterday, Congress has a 
number of pressing issues to address in the coming days. There are 
three critically important things before us that need to be done very 
quickly: pass disaster relief legislation to allow us to rebuild from 
Harvey and prepare for future disasters headed our way, such as Irma; 
prevent a default so those emergency resources can actually get to 
Americans who need them; and, of course, keep the government funded. 
These are the President's immediate priorities, these are my immediate 
priorities, and they are critically important to establishing 
credibility and stability as our country continues to recover from one 
record-setting storm and prepare for yet another. Harvey has already 
unleashed more rain than any other single storm recorded in the 
continental United States. Irma has already forced the entire State of 
Florida into a state of emergency.
  I would like to repeat two quotes I shared that are even more 
relevant now given the further approach of Irma. This is the 
President's budget director:

       Given the need for additional spending as a result of 
     disaster response and initial recovery from Hurricane Harvey, 
     the administration continues to urge the Congress to act 
     expeditiously to ensure that the debt ceiling does not affect 
     these critical response and recovery efforts.

  That is the budget director.
  That is because, as the Treasury Secretary explained, ``If Congress 
appropriates the money, but I don't have the ability to borrow more 
money and pay for it, we're not going to be able to get that money'' to 
the States, and they need it. The need for certainty now is incredibly 
important.
  I have been having conversations with the Democratic leader on my 
view of the way forward on these issues, and this morning he and I, 
along with House leaders from both parties, will head to the White 
House for a meeting to discuss the issues further. It is good to see 
that Congress has already made steady progress.
  I again thank the President and his team for working closely with us 
to ensure that families and States are able to get the help they need 
and for working with us to prevent a default or lapse in government 
service that could get in the way of that help actually being 
delivered.
  As we work on these immediate priorities, Members will also continue 
working on other critically important items, such as tax reform, 
national security, and filling vacancies across the Federal Government. 
We clearly have a lot to do in the coming weeks and months, but we will 
all keep working to tackle these issues as soon as possible.

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