Press Releases

Congressman Scott Perry offered the following statement in response to his vote against raising the debt ceiling, which was packaged within a proposal that offered aid to victims of Hurricane Harvey:

“Last week, I supported legislation in the House to provide $7.85 billion in aid for the victims of Hurricane Harvey – the first of what’s expected to be a series of relief proposals in the wake of recent disasters. Growing up, we were flooded out of our home twice by severe storms, and I’ve seen the impact of other natural disasters on my own community. I’m well aware it could happen again. This issue deserved a vote on its own merits and I would’ve gladly supported it again; but the Senate attached several unrelated policy items to the bill that forced me to vote against the final package. One of these items was an increase to our debt ceiling – which was provided without any corresponding spending cuts or other mechanisms to rein in our existing $20 trillion debt. I was hoping we could come together to have an open and honest discussion about how to address this crisis; instead, we again punted it down the road. As our debt continues to grow, we limit our Nation’s ability to respond to tragedies like Hurricanes Harvey and Irma – in addition to a host of other direct and related problems. We ignore this growing crisis at our Nation’s peril.”