want to play politics with the debt ceiling? that will strand the aid we need to bring to these victims. even if the $7.8 billion in relief aid passes congress, florida senators say it will only cover federal response costs for about a couple of weeks and would not adequately cover resources fema needs to respond to irma. we need citizens to be involved. this is a landmark event. we have not seen an event like this. the historic magnitude of harvey overwhelmed federal responders, causing them to ask the public for help. and that will likely happen again with irma. all right. and this image that you are seeing there, i mean, that s how bad it is. you can t even make out where you are looking at. no doubt the response and recovery will be overwhelming for federal responders. despite all of that, fema says it has activated its regional offices and already deployed some 700 people to respond to
hopefully, you are with me congressman. one of the things the president was talking about let s transition to harvey. one of the things he was talking about is the hurricane barrelling down towards the united states. you have funding coming up for a vote in the house very shortly. are you going to support that? yes. i don t have hesitation about that. it s $7.8 billion i believe is the number we will see in a few minutes here on the floor of the house. that s reasonable for the opening of this to fill some of the gaps in the funding that fema has. if you remember, the first ask after katrina in new orleans, now 12 years ago, was $10.5 billion. i voted for that first $10.5 billion. fema has to have resources to function. especially with another hurricane baring down on florida. we need to get this out. we will see supplemental requests in the aftermath of the hurricanes.
welcome back, everybody, i m yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin. it is the bottom of the hour. let s start with the morning s top stories. the house is set to vote today on an aid package to help with the recovery from hurricane harvey. the $7.8 billion relief bill is expected to was overwhelmingly. and it comes as fema is said to run out of the disaster leaf funds by the end of the week. the bill will end senate leaders next to tap on administration to increase the debt ceiling which may cause problems with a number of conservative senators. and in the wake of hurricane harvey, the most powerful hurricane reported in the atlantic ocean is set to make landfall later today. president trump has urd declared a state of emergency, along with florida and the virgin islands. we ll have the latest on irma s path in a few minutes.
we re looking at that and nothing to slow it down or deintensify it. and as one part of the country recovers from hurricane harvey, fema is set to run out of disaster relief money by the end of the week the house of representatives is expected to vote on say hurricane harvey aid package today. the $7.8 billion relief bill is expected to pass overwhelmingly. but when it gets to the senate, gop leaders are expected to add legislation to increase the debt ceiling. fema literally is running out of funds at the end of this week. unless we raise the debt ceiling, there will not be any way that congress can actually appropriate that emergency funding and get it, the federal emergency management agency to help those in so much need. now, a growing number of conservatives have reservations about that plan. texas senator ted cruz, for example, he told reporters yesterday, quote, i think the best way to have a relief
pay for it, we re not going to be able to get that money to the state. that was treasury secretary mnuchin over the weekend. the trump administration now saying it wants federal spending on relief for hurricane harvey to be tied to raising the debt limit. the move setting up a potentially fierce political battle. the ultra conservative wing of the gop doesn t want to raise the debt ceiling without spending cuts which means they would have to vote against aid for texas if the debt ceiling and harvey aid are tied together. the white house has already asked congress to approve a $7.8 billion package as part of an initial request for funds. a request for more cash is expected later this month. the death toll for hurricane harvey now stands at 53. thousands of people are still unable to return home, and tens of thousands more are still living in shelters and relying on aid. in the last few hours, officials have lifted the evacuation zone around the arkema chemical plant near