Representative Mac Thornberry (R-Clarendon) was one of four Texas Republicans to vote against a $15 billion aid package for hurricane relief.
$15 billion in hurricane funding was tied to the Reinforcing Education Accountability in Development Act. In the bill's vote, four Texas Republicans voted against the package, joining 86 other members of the House in opposition to the package. The other members of the Texas delegation that voted against the package were Joe Barton, Jeb Hensarling and Sam Johnson.
The primary opposition to the new relief package was a provision in the bill that raised the debt ceiling. In a statement, Representative Barton (R-Ennis) said that his opposition to the relief package was based on "raising the public debt ceiling without a plan to reduce deficits in the short term, and eliminate them in the long term."
In a statement after the vote, Thornberry echoed Barton's statement, calling the vote "more of the same political games."
When the bill reached the U.S. Senate, seventeen senators voted against the package. Those senators include: Bob Corker (R-Tennessee), Steve Daines (R-Montana), Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska), Jeff Flake (R-Arizona), Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), Mike Lee (R-Utah), John McCain (R-Arizona), Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), James Risch (R-Idaho), Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska) and Pat Toomey (R-Pennsylvania).
Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz voted in favor of the package when it reached the United States Senate.
In a previous vote this week, every member of the Texas delegation backed a stand-alone $8 billion relief package for Hurricane Harvey.
