On Wednesday, federal officials said they were expecting a “multi-year” recovery from Hurricane Harvey. The cost of that recovery is likely to be well over $100 billion—a report released over the weekend estimated it at $160 billion, though it might be much higher. And Donald Trump himself has promised “billions” to help with rebuilding, recovery, and cleanup.
But Trump has also hinted that he wouldn’t accept a spending deal that doesn’t include money for his border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. On Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that, in an attempt to finance that wall, the House was considering cutting nearly $1 billion from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief account. According to the AP, this would pay “for roughly half the cost of Trump’s down payment on a U.S.-Mexico border wall.”
The disaster relief account is running low as it is—there’s only $2.3 billion remaining in it. And with America’s fourth-largest city under water, the idea of taking money away from people in need to keep people in need away is craven, even for the House GOP. But that hasn’t stopped the House GOP before and there’s no reason to believe it will stop them now.