Updated at 3:05 p.m. with new comments from Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Austin Rep. Roger Williams.

WASHINGTON — The Senate passed a controversial spending measure on Thursday to direct more than $15 billion in aid to Hurricane Harvey-affected states while also funding the government and raising the nation's debt ceiling through December.

The measure passed the GOP-led chamber by an 80-17 vote. Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz voted for the spending package, though it still faces opposition by some House Republicans unhappy with the parameters of a deal struck by President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders on Wednesday.

It could receive a vote in the House as soon as Friday, and at least one conservative Texas congressman is vowing to oppose it while another is calling for a chance to find offsets for the disaster relief aid. Still, with national attention on lawmakers in the wake of Hurricane Harvey and now Hurricane Irma, the bill is all but certain to succeed.

Arlington Rep. Joe Barton told The Dallas Morning News that he opposes the deal agreed to by Trump, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi that combined needed Harvey relief aid with a measure to raise the debt ceiling for nearly three months.

Conservative Republicans abhor increasing the nation's borrowing limit -- a move that essentially allows for adding to the nearly $20 trillion debt. Barton is among those who wanted Harvey relief to remain as a standalone bill, such as the $8 billion measure that he and other House members overwhelmingly approved a day ago.

“I don’t like it, and I’m not going to vote for it,” Barton said on Wednesday. “We don’t even know how much the president’s request for the debt ceiling is going to be. We’re literally being asked right now to sign a blank check.”

Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington, spoke at a town hall meeting at Mansfield City Hall in April 13, 2017. (David Woo / Staff Photographer)

Ahead of the Senate’s vote, Dallas Rep. Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the Financial Services Committee, said that recent hurricane damage is a true emergency, but that he wants the “opportunity to propose offsets, a number of which can easily be found in President Trump’s budget.”

“Rebuilding, as important as it is, should not go through an emergency funding process that exacerbates our dangerous and unstable national debt,” he said in a statement.

Cruz, a deficit hawk who has repeatedly voted against raising the nation's borrowing limit, said it was a "mistake to cynically tie hurricane relief to the debt ceiling."

"I wish that had not been done, and as as result, an awful lot of members will vote against it," he said on Thursday, after voting in favor of the measure. "We’re going to get it done but it was counter-productive to tie the two together."

Uncomfortable for GOP

This week's vote was already poised to be uncomfortable for many Texas Republicans.

Cruz, Cornyn and 23 of the state's GOP lawmakers have been pummeled in recent weeks for their 2013 vote against aid for Hurricane Sandy, with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie blasting them as "hypocrites" for wanting federal aid now.

Some lawmakers have tried to defend that vote by saying the Sandy package had extraneous special projects, though a Congressional Research Service report shows that nearly all of the aid went to Sandy efforts.

With parts of southeast Texas destroyed and a president eager to demonstrate a speedy federal response, Lone Star lawmakers were uniformly prepared to pass a Harvey relief package until it was bundled with a stopgap spending bill and suspension of the debt ceiling.

"It's a horrible position for us to have been put in," said Austin Rep. Roger Williams, a conservative who said he believes adding to the national debt is "morally wrong."

But he will "probably" vote for it, he said. "Because I have to. I have to take care of my fellow Texans."

North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows, chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said many of the group's members, including Barton, were expected to oppose the measure. He predicted anywhere from 100 to 150 Republicans would vote against it, but that it would easily pass in the 435-member House.

Cornyn was surprised to learn that Barton is a no vote.

“I hope not. I hope not,” he said, ahead of a luncheon with the Texas delegation in which Gov. Greg Abbott would phone in. “I hope we can persuade the Texas delegation to support it.”

In a press conference following the luncheon, several Republicans and Democrats pledged a united front in supporting any measure that would bring federal relief to their storm-ravaged state. The spending bill also includes extension of the beleaguered National Flood Insurance Program until Dec. 8.

Barton helped organize that delegation meeting, according to other Texas lawmakers, but a spokesman said his plans to vote no haven't changed.

Trump's deal with Democrats

Trump stunned his own party when he accepted a deal with Democrats to raise the debt ceiling through December, instead of the longer time frame Republicans wanted.

Senate Republicans needed just eight Democratic votes to pass the measure, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle would be hard-pressed to vote against Harvey aid.

That's why many were taken aback when the president sided with Schumer and Pelosi, giving the minority party critical leverage on other issues when the current stopgap bill expires in December.

The $15.3 billion is considered a down payment on what could be multiple aid packages for Harvey and potentially Hurricane Irma.

On Thursday, Houston Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat, introduced a supplemental spending bill to provide $174 billion in federal aid for Harvey-affected states.

Staff writer Caroline Kelly contributed to this report.