Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is ramping up preparations for Hurricane Irma as it barrels toward the Florida coast, even as the agency continues the massive recovery effort in storm-battered Texas. The roughly $1 billion left in FEMA's Emergency Response Fund is expected to run out as soon as the end of the week, just as Category 5 Irma could be pounding Florida and less than two weeks after Hurricane Harvey caused massive flooding in Houston.
Hurricane Irma sent farmers and food companies scrambling to protect processing facilities, farm fields and animal herds in the South and Southeastern parts of the United States on Wednesday. Florida sugar and citrus processors rushed to secure rail cars and equipment that could be crushed, blocked or turned into flying projectiles.
This Jan. 24, 2017 file photo shows Health and Human Services Secretary-designate, Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga. in Capitol Hill, Washington Among the federal agencies looking to help the city bounce back is the Department of Health and Human Services, which is doing everything from to helping run pop-up hospital units to moving patients from the storm's path.
The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed $7.9 billion in Hurricane Harvey disaster relief as warring Republicans and Democrats united behind help for victims of that storm as an ever more powerful new hurricane bore down on Florida. The 419-3 vote sent the aid package - likely the first of several - to the Senate in hopes of sending the bill to President Donald Trump before dwindling federal disaster reserves run out at the end of this week.
In this Sept. 5, 2017, photo, a worker walks past a pile of debris outside a business damaged by floodwaters in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in Spring, Texas.
4, 2017, satellite image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Irma nearing the eastern Caribbean. Hurricane Irma grew into a powerful Category 4 storm Monday.
In a Sunday Sept. 3, 2017 photo, Michele Kessler holds a sign of support at a Defered Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA rally on Public Square in Wilkes Barre Pa.
The move is opposed by fiscal conservatives who want to pair spending reform to the debt ceiling increase, which will push the nation's borrowing limit well about $20 trillion. The Senate will tie a critical hurricane relief measure to legislation that would increase the nation's borrowing limit, after theHouse planned to take up the two bills separately.
The Hurricane Harvey death toll has risen to more than 60 people, as cleanup efforts and disaster relief attempts continue to progress in southeast Texas. Many Houston residents who had been in shelters for the past week are beginning to come out to assess the damage and chart their way forward.
The Capitol is seen at sunrise as Congress returns from the August recess to face work on immigration, the debt limit, funding the government, and Hurricane Harvey, in Washington, Tuesday. WASHINGTON >> Congress ends its five-week summer recess Tuesday as storm-ravaged states clamor for Harvey aid, the Trump administration demands a swift increase in the nation's borrowing authority, and President Donald Trump's actions on immigration seem certain to upend the fall agenda.
President Trump is entering a critical fall, beset by low approval ratings, raw tensions with Republicans on Capitol Hill, an evolving nuclear crisis with North Korea and multiple investigations into alleged ties with Russia. This month, lawmakers will seek to raise the debt ceiling, pass a measure to fund the government and provide billions of dollars in relief for Texas and Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
A Standard & Poor's index of the five biggest U.S. airlines plunged 7.5 percent in August, wiping out about $10 billion in market value. Shares fell as a price war that started between Analysts see more pain ahead.
President Donald Trump and Melania Trump pass out food and meet people impacted by Hurricane Harvey during a visit to the NRG Center in Houston Saturday. It was his second trip to Texas in a week, and this time his first order of business was to meet with those affected by the record-setting rainfall and flooding.
The National Hurricane Center said at 0300 GMT that the storm was packing top sustained winds of 140 mph . "Additional strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours," the NHC warned.
House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will have a packed schedule when Congress returns this week. Lawmakers have less than two weeks of legislative days to head off a government shutdown, raise the nation's borrowing limit and provide financial assistance in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
The federal flood insurance program is on a course to continue falling deeper in debt, even when there is no catastrophic storm like Katrina or Harvey. The National Flood Insurance Program is currently on a path that will lead to a shortfall of $1.4 billion because its method for setting premiums has underestimated how much its claims will cost by about $1.1 billion and also because legislated surcharges are about $300 million shy of what's needed to cover premium discounts given to certain properties, according to the Congressional Budget Office report, National Flood Insurance Program Financial Soundness and Affordability .
Looming ahead are critical government funding deadlines and the last, best chance at championing a legislative win -- tax reform -- ahead of the 2018 midterm election. But Trump is clashing with Republican leaders, his approval ratings are in the 30s in most polls and more than half of voters are convinced he is bent on tearing the country apart, according to one recent Fox News survey.
Victoria's city and county officials agree: Much more remains to be done after Hurricane Harvey ravaged the city's homes and businesses. On Monday evening, local, state and federal officials met in Victoria's emergency operations center to discuss the city's road to recovery.