According to multiple press reports, the United States Senate plans to attach an $8 billion disaster funding package for Hurricane Harvey recovery to a measure to increase the country’s debt ceiling. The Heritage Foundation’s leading fiscal and budget expert and Grover M. Hermann Research Fellow, Romina Boccia, had the following to say about that plan:

“Tying an increase in the nation’s debt ceiling to Harvey relief funding is an opportunistic trick by Congress and the White House to avoid any difficult conversations about the country’s unsustainable fiscal path. Congress can provide targeted, appropriate disaster relief without an irresponsible hike in the debt limit. Any increase in the country’s debt ceiling should be openly debated in Congress and paired with serious controls on future spending – not hidden behind desperately needed relief funding. This is political cowardice in its vilest form. Lawmakers are exploiting the goodwill of the American people to assist their fellow Americans when disaster strikes. Once again, Congress is choosing to kick the can down the road and delay necessary action to restrain spending.”