Despite some GOP opposition, Congress gives final approval to hurricane aid and Trump’s deal with Democrats

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Sept. 8, 2017, 7:51 a.m.

Despite some GOP opposition, Congress gives final approval to hurricane aid and Trump’s deal with Democrats

Lisa Mascaro

Congress gave final approval Friday to hurricane disaster aid and a short-term debt-and-spending package, with Democrats delivering the majority of votes President Trump needed for the deal.

House passage, by a 316-90 margin, fended off what could have been a month-end fiscal crisis, and assured FEMA won’t run out of money.

But it sets up the next showdown in December as a weakened Republican majority struggles to regroup and Trump reaches across the aisle to Democrats to make gains on his stalled agenda.

As expected, conservatives opposed the deal, but in doing so they bucked their own president’s plan to allow more borrowing beyond the debt limit and continue funding government operations through Dec. 8 without spending cuts or broader fiscal reforms. In the House, 90 Republicans opposed the package.

Trump is expected to sign it swiftly into law.

The package provides $15.2 billion in disaster-related aid, including $7.4 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was running out of money after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas and Louisiana last month, and with Hurricane Irma now devastating the Caribbean and threatening Florida. Another $7.4 billion in community block grants was included for housing aid, and $450 million for Small Business Administration loans.

Texas Republicans, a powerful bloc of generally conservative votes, largely backed the measure, even though GOP lawmakers had come under criticism for opposing past aid after Superstorm Sandy in 2013 because it was not offset with spending reductions elsewhere.