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President Trump struck a deal with Democrat minority leaders Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., amending a $7.85 billion emergency spending measure intended to provide badly needed aide for Hurricane Harvey victims to include a short-term suspension of the debt ceiling until December 8. This permits the U.S. Treasury to borrow an unlimited amount of money during this time frame.
The idea of exploiting the suffering of Hurricane Harvey victims as political leverage to push through a clean debt ceiling increase was originally hatched by GOP leadership. The only difference between the GOP leadership's plan and the final deal reached between President Trump, House Minority Leader Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader Schumer was the time frame for suspending the debt limit.
In addition to suspending the statutory limit on the national debt, the bill provides for $7.4 billion in emergency funding for FEMA, $450 million for the Small Business Authority, and an additional $7.4 billion for Community Development Block Grant, historically regarded as pork barrel spending because funds aren’t used for immediate relief.
Elected officials supporting this debt ceiling increase have no idea of the amount of debt they are approving, because the increase was affixed to a date rather than a number. This bill amounts to a blank check to increase the nation’s $19.9 trillion national debt without securing spending cuts to offset the emergency hurricane relief package.
Furthermore, the bill extends government funding at the current Obama-era spending levels through December 8, 2017, and extends other government programs like the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) that were set to expire.
In short, the Republican-controlled government passed a budget funding all of the Democrat spending levels and policy priorities, such as sanctuary cities, Planned Parenthood, and refugee resettlement, but failed to fund the border wall the president promised.
The bill was approved by the Senate 80-17 on September 7, 2017, and the House of Representatives approved the bill with majority Democratic support 316-90 on September 8, 2017.
To see how your elected officials stack up or other votes that compose the Liberty Score, view our full scorecard here.
Conservative position: NO
U.S. Senate
YEAs — 80
Alexander (R-TN)
Baldwin (D-WI)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bennet (D-CO)
Blumenthal (D-CT)
Blunt (R-MO)
Booker (D-NJ)
Boozman (R-AR)
Brown (D-OH)
Burr (R-NC)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Capito (R-WV)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Coons (D-DE)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Cortez Masto (D-NV)
Cotton (R-AR)
Crapo (R-ID)
Cruz (R-TX)
Donnelly (D-IN)
Duckworth (D-IL)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Franken (D-MN)
Gardner (R-CO)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Harris (D-CA)
Hassan (D-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)
Heinrich (D-NM)
Heitkamp (D-ND)
Heller (R-NV)
Hirono (D-HI)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Kaine (D-VA)
Kennedy (R-LA)
King (I-ME)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Leahy (D-VT)
Manchin (D-WV)
Markey (D-MA)
McCaskill (D-MO)
McConnell (R-KY)
Merkley (D-OR)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Murphy (D-CT)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Perdue (R-GA)
Peters (D-MI)
Portman (R-OH)
Reed (D-RI)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rounds (R-SD)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schatz (D-HI)
Schumer (D-NY)
Scott (R-SC)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Shelby (R-AL)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Strange (R-AL)
Tester (D-MT)
Thune (R-SD)
Tillis (R-NC)
Udall (D-NM)
Van Hollen (D-MD)
Warner (D-VA)
Warren (D-MA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wicker (R-MS)
Wyden (D-OR)
Young (R-IN)
NAYs—17
Corker (R-TN)
Daines (R-MT)
Enzi (R-WY)
Ernst (R-IA)
Fischer (R-NE)
Flake (R-AZ)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Johnson (R-WI)
Lankford (R-OK)
Lee (R-UT)
McCain (R-AZ)
Moran (R-KS)
Paul (R-KY)
Risch (R-ID)
Sasse (R-NE)
Toomey (R-PA)
Not Voting—3
Menendez (D-NJ)
Rubio (R-FL)
Sullivan (R-AK)
U.S. House
Abraham Adams Aderholt Aguilar Allen Amodei Arrington Babin Barletta Barragán Bass Beatty Bera Bergman Beyer Bishop (GA) Bishop (MI) Bishop (UT) Blum Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Bost Boyle, Brendan F. Brady (PA) Brady (TX) Brooks (IN) Brown (MD) Brownley (CA) Bucshon Burgess Bustos Butterfield Calvert Capuano Carbajal Cárdenas Carson (IN) Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Cartwright Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Chabot Chu, Judy Cicilline Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Clay Cleaver Clyburn Coffman Cohen Cole Collins (NY) Comstock Conaway Connolly Conyers Cook Cooper Correa Costello (PA) Courtney Cramer Crawford Crowley Cuellar Culberson Davis (CA) Davis, Rodney DeFazio Delaney DelBene Demings Denham Dent DeSaulnier Dingell Doggett Donovan Doyle, Michael F. Ellison Engel Eshoo Espaillat Esty (CT) Evans Farenthold Faso Ferguson Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Flores Fortenberry Foster Frankel (FL) Frelinghuysen Fudge Gabbard Gallego Garamendi Gianforte Gibbs Gohmert Gomez | Gonzalez (TX) Gottheimer Gowdy Granger Graves (GA) Graves (LA) Green, Al Green, Gene Grijalva Grothman Guthrie Gutiérrez Hanabusa Handel Harper Hastings Heck Higgins (LA) Higgins (NY) Himes Hoyer Huffman Hurd Issa Jackson Lee Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (LA) Johnson (OH) Johnson, E. B. Joyce (OH) Kaptur Katko Keating Kelly (IL) Kelly (PA) Kennedy Khanna Kihuen Kildee Kilmer Kind King (IA) King (NY) Kinzinger Knight Krishnamoorthi Kuster (NH) LaMalfa Lance Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Latta Lawrence Lee Levin Lewis (GA) Lewis (MN) Lieu, Ted Lipinski LoBiondo Loebsack Lofgren Love Lowenthal Lowey Lucas Lujan Grisham, M. Luján, Ben Ray Lynch MacArthur Maloney, Carolyn B. Maloney, Sean Marchant Marino Marshall Mast Matsui McCarthy McCaul McCollum McEachin McGovern McHenry McKinley McMorris Rodgers McNerney McSally Meehan Meeks Meng Mitchell Moolenaar Moore Moulton Murphy (PA) Nadler Napolitano Neal Newhouse Nolan Norcross Nunes O'Halleran | O'Rourke Olson Palazzo Pallone Panetta Pascrell Paulsen Payne Pelosi Perlmutter Peters Peterson Pingree Pittenger Pocan Poe (TX) Poliquin Polis Price (NC) Quigley Raskin Ratcliffe Reed Reichert Rice (NY) Rice (SC) Roe (TN) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rohrabacher Rooney, Francis Rooney, Thomas J. Rosen Roybal-Allard Royce (CA) Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Ryan (OH) Sánchez Sarbanes Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Schrader Scott (VA) Scott, Austin Scott, David Serrano Sessions Sewell (AL) Shea-Porter Sherman Shimkus Shuster Simpson Sinema Sires Slaughter Smith (NJ) Smith (TX) Smith (WA) Smucker Soto Speier Stefanik Stivers Suozzi Swalwell (CA) Takano Taylor Tenney Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Thompson (PA) Tiberi Titus Tonko Torres Trott Tsongas Upton Valadao Vargas Veasey Vela Velázquez Visclosky Walberg Walden Walters, Mimi Walz Waters, Maxine Watson Coleman Weber (TX) Welch Williams Wilson (FL) Wilson (SC) Womack Woodall Yarmuth Young (AK) Young (IA) |
NAYS—90
Amash Bacon Banks (IN) Barr Barton Biggs Black Blackburn Brat Brooks (AL) Buck Budd Byrne Cheney Collins (GA) Comer Davidson DesJarlais Duffy Duncan (SC) Duncan (TN) Emmer Estes (KS) Foxx Franks (AZ) Gaetz Gallagher Goodlatte Gosar Graves (MO) | Griffith Harris Hartzler Hensarling Herrera Beutler Hice, Jody B. Hill Holding Hollingsworth Hudson Huizenga Hultgren Hunter Jenkins (KS) Jenkins (WV) Johnson, Sam Jordan Kelly (MS) Kustoff (TN) LaHood Lamborn Long Loudermilk Luetkemeyer Massie McClintock Meadows Messer Mooney (WV) Mullin | Noem Norman Palmer Pearce Perry Renacci Roby Rokita Roskam Rothfus Rouzer Russell Sanford Schweikert Sensenbrenner Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Stewart Thornberry Tipton Turner Wagner Walker Walorski Wenstrup Westerman Wittman Yoder Yoho Zeldin |
Not Voting—27
Bilirakis Bridenstine Buchanan Costa Crist Cummings Curbelo (FL) Davis, Danny DeGette | DeLauro DeSantis Deutch Diaz-Balart Dunn Garrett Jones Labrador Lawson (FL) | Murphy (FL) Posey Richmond Ros-Lehtinen Ross Rutherford Scalise Wasserman Schultz Webster (FL) |
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