republican-democratic leadership met with president trump at the white house to talk about the legislative agenda pick after brief comments about the to do list for congress the president was asked about emergency funding for hurricane harvey's relief. >> thank you very much. we have the congressional leaders with us here today, and we have a lot to discuss, including the fact that there's a new and seems to be record-breaking hurricane heading right towards florida and puerto rico and other places. we will see what happens. we will know in a very short period of time but it looks like it could be something that will be not good, believe me, not good. we have many, many things that are on the plate. hopefully we can solve them in a

rational way and maybe we won't be able to. probably will no pre-much of the into this meeting, or the meetings that will be having over a short bit of time. but our country has a lot of great assets and we have some liabilities that went to workout so we'll see if we can do that. i appreciate everybody being here. thank you very much. thank you very much, nancy, jeff, appreciate it very much. and thank you. thank you. thank you very much. >> mr. president, are you willing -- debt ceiling -- connected with harvey funding? [inaudible] [inaudible conversations] >> i hope they do. i certainly hope they do. >> what you mean exactly by -- [inaudible]

>> house speaker paul ryan says lawmakers will remain in washington into emergency funding for hurricane harvey's victims is approved. the house passed its version this morning and we will be sending it to the senate this afternoon. speaker ryan spoke today to reporters for about 15 minutes. >> [inaudible conversations] >> okay. as we returned to continue our work on the issues impacting people all across this country, at the top of the list is the devastation that was experienced in texas and louisiana with hurricane harvey.

and that is what we will be considering first thing this morning, a disaster aid package and it's really a focus on ensuring that we're there to help with the recovery come help restoring these communities. it's hard for a lot of us to imagine what people are going through but there's so many stories of courage and sacrifice that remind us into the day we are all americans that it great to see people pulling together to help one another during this time. i wanted to highlight some of the volunteers, a big thank you to the first responders, but i was just so heart warmed to hear about the stories like pastor marty murray who heard on a makeshift walkie-talkie that there were people that needed help and got out in his boat and rescued hundreds in the texas and louisiana portion here my roommate was from texas, my college freshman roommate from houston, and i reached out to her and she was fine, but her sister lost her home.

their churches devastate and everyone has stories. that is why we all must step up. i'm pleased to have representative john culberson with us this morning, his district has been impacted, one of the hardest hit. he's also on the appropriations committee and has been leading the charge on the aid package and we'll be hearing more from the entire texas delegation later on today in a bipartisan support of the legislation that's going to pass, that is needed in texas and we are moving forward to fulfill president trump's request at this time, and our partners in the senate to get the aid that is needed right away. so representative culberson. >> thank you, kathy. our messenger today is help is on the way to the people who suffered in texas and louisiana and to say thank you to all the first responders, to say thank you to our president who personally donated $1 million of his own money to help the people of texas and louisiana, to say

thank you to leadership, mr. speaker, thank you for bringing this bill to the force or quickly. mr. leader, to come to houston, we spent time together flying over the flood ravaged areas. kathy, we're so grateful all of us in texas and louisiana for the immediate response of the congress, the need respond to the american people. we are today going to pass legislation in the house that will provide an immediate cash infusion to help the victim recover, to help them with hotel expenses, with all the other things that they did not anticipate two, three weeks ago. their lives are transformed in a moment. this skill of flooding is unimaginable. my family has lost everything to my brother lost his own. they have been utterly destroyed. all my in-laws have lost everything. the entire city of, 70% of houston, harris county was underwater the entire city of orange and port arthur was underwater some point the rangers wouldn't stop. i spent all last week out a neighborhood shopping rescue people, boats, using boats and

trucks and waders to put people out of homes. the scale of the tragedy is unimaginable but in the midst of all this and all the suffering, it really reflects the american character, how people from all over the country stepped up to help houstonians recover from this. in the neighborhoods last saturday i met a team of four guys with a boat from florida who simply got in their car and the truck and drove the boat to houston to help all people out. and i got from michigan was out in the neighborhoods. we had during the midst of the storm on the second day windows just, it was catastrophic flooding, i got a phone call from garret graves of louisiana who said the cajun navy wants to come help houston. i didn't even know there was such a thing. 110 trucks just spontaneously got together pulling 100 votes from central, louisiana, carrying thousands of meals of july and red beans and rice and diapers and waters and radios, help is on the way.

help is on the way, america, because congress knows this is an emergency with acting decisively. there are no democrats or republicans, no party divisions. we are all americans today to make sure that the people who suffered the most get the help the quickest. we are deeply, deeply grateful to all of the people of america stepped up to help us and thankful for the leadership of the congress working together arm and arm regardless of party to help us recover from this disastrous storm. thank you very much. >> i first want to start by saying our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who were lost in this storm. congressman culberson is being ablalittle humble. he's done a lot of work as an appropriate to bring this bill package forward, but on a personal level i watched him as i traveled last 33 days through southeast texas, constantly personally working to save

people from being on a boat, from coordinating with the mayor, from coordinating with the coast guard, getting more votes out. saving people but also saving animals. as we've gone through the first stage we are now moving into the second stage. those three days that i went through, i went to -- i watched a small town, their water tower with four big steel beams that held it up. this is where the wind first came in, just twist and explode. community without water. i go to the command center. i find that it's there for the command center because the others would get flooded and have to leave. the mayor hasn't been on the job for a year. his business is down. his home is hurt but he hasn't left the job. beaumont, whatever less stops, i went in there with senator cornyn -- less stops. here we are, water system for the whole city shut down but a a small business was building these pumps, were going to ship

and out of the country to client to call them and said no, you sit there and had a workaround to be able to save it. and i think in beaumont, the name is becky, the mayor, said it best. as the downpour began, the outpouring of human kindness started and overtook everything else. and we know texas will be able to come back. we affirm on the way hitting florida. -- we have irma -- this is a time where leadership needs to rise up with everybody in the house and the city. that's why we will move the bill today in a short hour, send it over. and technology helped save a lot of lives. culberson will show you he has this app about neighbors you can connect with each other next door where you were being able to save each other. snapchat even with your friends to see whether there hurt or not. technology has helped us provide more resources. the iphone has only been around for ten years.

katrina was in 2005. so we are seeing fema needs help sooner because the resources can get a faster to those in need. that's why it's important that we know this as fast as we do. and i hope the senate is able to do as well. i told the members in the conference today that we will stay until we get this job done. >> you know, i first want to thank our colleagues in texas and the delegation, both republicans and democrats for the leadership. it's been really something to watch the it's really been impressive. when this all started to unfold, they were reaching out to express the urgency of the situation. 52 inches of rain is something we've never seen before. and so they made it clear to us just how fast this problem was. and as soon as we finish here, the house will take action as kevin just said on installment that we were not leave until this is done. nothing can really capture just how big and wide this devastation is. you hear a lot of numbers.

tens of thousands of people in shelters. hundreds of thousands of homes damaged. nothing can really capture this. when we look at, when you turn on the tv in america today, you look at all the vitriol, you look at the bitterness, you look at writing and all the rest of this. you begin to wonder whether or not our society is holding together. this hurricane shows that it is. this shows that our civil society is still very, very simple. an e-mail when around janesville wisconsin to the various churches and schools, and we wanted to fill up one semi trailer at farm and fleet with the visiting -- to sense in a a down to the j. j. watt foundation, a local hero who plays for the houston texans. the next day we were all collected so that our kids in schools, we didn't fill one semi trailer. we filled nine. that's just in janesville,

wisconsin. eating aid down to houston. and so -- gating. what i think is a good sir out of all of this is in this country, citizens when they see other citizens in need, a step up and the answer the calls. and so it is something that we should take stock and encouragement from. now we, government, have a responsibility as well. and as the majority leader said, technology is a good thing and it's helping us, but what is also doing is its moving money very fast through the system, as a should. and that is what we will not leave until we get this done to make sure the response is there. we've got another hurricane right now, hurricane irma, headed to our shores and it's critical that we act immediately. so for now we've got to make sure that we team up with the first responders. we are really encouraged and hardened by the people grabbing the votes of risking their citizens by people all around

america sending aid, and with one more hurricane, one wins hitting our shores again, those people in that line our inner thoughts and in our prayers. i think it's really important we take stock of the fact that silicide in america is well and alive. it is on display. citizens are helping each other and together be there to respond to the needs of these people who face this unprecedented devastation. any questions? [inaudible] [inaudible] >> so first let me say, president obama was wrong to do in the first place because he overstepped his constitutional bounds. we, the president and congress

take an oath to support and defend the constitution. so president trump was right in his decision. he made the right call. i'm also encouraged by the fact that he gave us time to work out a consensus to find a compromi compromise. it has these kids don't come for the most part don't know any of them than the united states. so i think the president was right to give us the time we need to find that compromise. where does that compromise access? as a liquid to spend the next let'mistake of where the comproe is. what i think it's totally reasonable and appropriate that when you take a look at the daca dilemma, this is a dilemma that a large part stems from the fact that it is a symptom of a larger problem, and the larger bob is that we do not have control of our borders. and so it's only reasonable and fitting that we also address the root cause of the problem, which is borders that are not sufficiently controlled, while we address this very real and very human problem that's right

in front of us. so i think it's perfectly reasonable. to the second part of your question, we will not be advancing legislation that does not have the support of president trump because we're going to work with the president on had to do this legislation. if we have legislation coming through here that his work with and supported by the president, i'm very confident that our members will support that. susan. [inaudible] >> i think that's a ridiculous idea. i hope that they don't mean that. let's just think about this. we've got all this devastation in texas. we've got another unprecedented hurricane about to hit florida, and they want to play politics with the debt ceiling? that will strand the aid do we need to bring to these victims of these storms that have occurred or about to occur, and they also want to threaten to default under debt? i think that's ridiculous and disgraceful that they want to play politics with the debt ceiling at this moment when we are fellow citizens indeed to respond to these hurricanes so

that we do not strand of them. [inaudible] >> i think, what those, what the leaders you just described proposed is unworkable, and he could put in jeopardy the kind of hurricane response we need to have. look, many of us got the calls from the administration at omb who said fema is been so fast we are running out of money as early as friday to tuesday. we've got to make sure that we have the authority, legal authority to go out and be able to put money back into fema soaking respond to these hurricanes. not to mention the fact we have to start pre-position for the fact that irma is about hit florida and to play politics with the debt ceiling like schumer and pelosi apparently are doing i don't think it's a good idea. [inaudible]

>> as you know this takes 60 votes in a city. i think what the presiden the pl want to do is give more leverage where it shouldn't occur on the debt ceiling as you know this takes 60 votes innocent. if this was a majority only but we could do which are safe but is not a majority vote. it is a 60 built in the senate, you know that. [inaudible] >> look, i think people should rest easy editing the president made the right call and the president also gave us the time and space we're going to need to find where the compromise is. as i mentioned in my opening remarks, this is a on the people know and they don't know any other country as a whole. so i think there's a serious humane issue that needs to be dealt with. but it's only fitting appraisal we also deal with some of the root cause of the problem. what we don't want to have happen is another daca problem can use another we want to make sure that we fix this issue for these kids come for these young people, and