You'd think Texas lawmakers would approve a measure to provide $15.3 billion in federal aid for Hurricane Harvey relief — without drama or second thought.

But no, Texas GOP Congressmen Jeb Hensarling of Dallas, Joe Barton of Arlington, Sam Johnson of Plano and Mac Thornberry of Clarendon all voted "no" — not because they opposed emergency relief, but because the aid package was part of a larger measure to hike the nation's debt limit, temporarily fund federal agencies through Dec. 8 and remove the threat of an Oct. 1 government shutdown.

Yes, Congress must confront the nation's debt problem, a position that this editorial board has urged for years. But there is a time and place to have that discussion. The middle of a national hurricane emergency isn't it.

Keeping the government running and raising the debt limit to protect the nation's credit-worthiness should have been a non-controversial vote. What sense is there in temporarily shutting down FEMA's recovery efforts while Congress, which has had years to address the national debt and the length of federal funding, chatters away over what to cut and how?

This is why Congress is dysfunctional. Too many lawmakers (of both parties) put scoring political points above doing what's right.

In this case, all the "no" votes — 90 in the House and 17 in the Senate — came from Republicans. They had the luxury of lecturing about fiscal responsibility since the bill's passage was never in doubt and damage wasn't in their home district. We'll wager that if Hensarling, Barton, Johnson, and Thornberry represented Houston, all of them would have insisted that Congress not hold up emergency relief in a foolish, ill-timed budget showdown.

Sadly, this isn't the first time lawmakers have played a politically calculated game of coulda, woulda, shoulda. Each time they do, it sours Americans on Congress and its so-called leadership.

Twenty-three of the 24 GOP members of the Texas House Congressional delegation voted in 2013 against a $50.5 billion for Superstorm Sandy relief to the battered East Coast. (They were in the minority, as the aid bill passed without them.) The exception was GOP Rep. John Culberson, whose district includes Houston.

On the Senate side, Texas Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, both of whom voted for the Harvey package, voted against the Sandy aid package.

Congress ended up in the right place last time and this time, but hypocrisy littered the path.

The country deserves better.

The rising costs of hurricane relief

Last week, the House voted 316 to 90 and the Senate 80 to 17 to approve $15.3 billion in federal aid for Hurricane Harvey relief. Recovery costs of Harvey and Irma could set new records and exact a big toll on the federal budget. For example:

The federal government spent more than $200 billion in the last 15 years on relief

Federal aid covered about $114.5 billion, or 72 percent of Katrina's damages, and $56 billion, or 80 percent, of Sandy's damages

Before Katrina, on average, federal aid made up only 17 percent of hurricane damage

The combined costs of hurricanes Harvey and Irma could exceed $300 billion.

Source: CNN, Dallas Morning News research

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