Hurricane Harvey Disaster Relief, Preventing a Default, and Funding the Government

Floor Speech

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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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