Bickering

Posted on: August 31, 2017 at 17:05:35 CT

And McIntosh, a former GOP congressman from Indiana, said conservatives are worried that Congress will spend billions without paying for it with spending cuts elsewhere in the government.

“The ideal is that it would be offset with savings in other areas. The worst thing that we’ve seen in the past is where emergency spending for Harvey becomes an excuse for other spending that other people want to get through," McIntosh said. “We’d want it to be paid for and not use pork barrel spending."

Several aides to conservative lawmakers said it is not yet clear whether fiscal conservatives in Congress can get behind the tactic given how quickly Texas needs money.

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), for example, has said he will fight for the cleanest possible legislation but has not demanded that the bill be entirely paid for. Some Texas Democrats have said the state will need more than $100 billion from Congress, which would require massive cuts if the cost of the bill were to be offset.

Both Meadows and McIntosh also say that the hurricane aid bill should not be attached to a debt ceiling increase required in the next month.