>> the long road to recovery. flood stricken texans look to washington for relief. i'm robert costa. we explain the hurdles congress faces trying to get aid to harvey victims. plus the president considers ending the dream for thousands of immigrants. tonight on "washington week." >> terrible thing but the city is coming together. robert: as flood waters recede in and around houston emergency search-and-rescue efforts continue and new dangers emerge. >> anything on the other side? robert: tens of thousands of people remain displaced in the wake of hurricane harvey. for those able to return home --? the grim and heart breaking task of cleanup. [cheering] president trump, who plans to donate 1 million of his own money, is reassuring the lonestar state that congress

will act quickly to provide federal relief. president trump: i think that you're going to see very rapid action from congress, certainly from the president. you'll get your funding and we think you'll have what you need and it is going to go fast. >> but given the scale of the disaster and the fact 80% of victims do not have flood insurance a political battle is brewing over emergency disaster funds. as congress faces contentious deadlines to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government. muss, will the president end the dreamer program that protects hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants? we wade through it all with abby livingston of the texas tribune, jeff bennett of npr. philip rucker of the "the washington post" and gene cummings of "the wall street journal." >> celebrating 50 years, this is "washington week."

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in our communities. the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again, live from washington, moderator, robert costa. good evening. on friday the white house requested nearly $6 billion as an emergency down payment toward harvey recovery aid. the proposal is just a fraction of the estimated $200 billion it will likely take to rebuild the region. here are some of the stats in the wake of harvey. more than 100,000 homes were affected. more than 32,000 people were displaced. an unknown number remain stranded. 38 confirmed deaths. as of friday more than 300,000

people have registered for federal aid. the texas governor greg abott is asking the federal government to pony up more. more than $125 billion to help with the recovery efforts. that's before the full economic impact of the disaster is known. jeff, one week later sitting here at this table, we thought we'd be in a september full of budget showdowns, a debt ceiling fight. i wonder, and everyone is wondering, has harvey changed everything in washington? >> i don't think it changed everything. it will definitely take the minds of lawmakers on tuesday, they want to appear a functional body and we expect they will quickly approve the $6 billion relief package the trump administration is sending over. inc. the moment of common cause and focus has a short shelf life because it does nothing to change ideologies of members,

especially democrats who take serious issue with the way the president handled the nearn crisis this past month, is handling of the racial violence in charlottesville. serious issues that will come to the fore again after this initial moment. >> in addition, you have senate republicans who have been taking a beating for the whole august recess from their own president. he attacked at one point we counted up and he had attacked seven senators. only one was a democrat. all of the rest were republicans and there is a lot of scratchy feeling between them and the president. i agree with jeff they'll definitely pass with big bipartisan votes the money to clean up after the storm. if they get the debt ceiling attached to it they could get it out of the way without needing the republican conservatives in the house. but we move on from there and i

think pretty soon they'll all be back to form. >> really? you think so? >> you have to remember some of the biggest trouble makers in the u.s. house are texas republicans. their districts are literally under water right now. so you now hear them saying let's not play any political games with this funding. so i think what we may see that will be a different dynamic is the largest regional voting bloc in the republican caucus might suddenly be willing to deal a lot more than they used to be. >> we've seen the freedom caucus and the white house walk back their demand to have the border wall the president so wants as part of this budget practice in september. that seems to be a little bit of a change. >> it is but they're not walking back the demand for the wall. they're just postponing it. what we think is probably going to happen over the next few weeks is a short-term funding bill gets passed in congress potentially with bipartisan support. that is only going to table the debate over the border wall until the end of the year. the president wants that wall.

he wants $1.6 billion in funding to start building it. it's a major campaign promise for him. i think a lot of republicans in the house want to help him get that. the republican leadership in the house and senate are not so keen thon wall and it is going to be a showdown we might see in december. >> phil saying there is going to be kumbaya now but the whole budget fight and debt ceiling could come back later in the year? >> absolutely. to the president's credit he has gotten high marks for the way he handled the initial storm relief and i think there will be a decent well of good will for him in these initial weeks. i think phil is spot on. >> the other oddty here is that all of a sudden we have two other really, really divisive issues thrown into the september mix. and that is the doca, the idea you'll have these fiscal fights, and including billions to go to texas, and then let's just toss in health care and immigration.

both of them could rear their heads. in that case could there be more divisive issues? >> you think health care may come back even though it failed this summer? >> in the senate there are bipartisan efforts and there is a bill to try to stabilize the insurance market. they really do need to do something by september 27 because that's when the insurers have to report what they're going to offer under obama care next year. so there is yet one more deadline, one mor shark in the water shall we say, that's out there that could blow the place out. >> the biggest thing, is this disaster relief package, you think about the 6 billion that texas is looking for in the initial request. governor greg abott is saying it could cost between 100 and $200 billion to solve what happened in houston and to fix the region. can we expect senator cruz who

fought against sandy funding in 2012 when that fought the northeast who asked for all these offsets in spending, is he going to be a champion to make sure the 6 billion actually ends up going to texas? >> i haven't spoken directly to his office on this but i've talked to other folks on the hill who are watching him closely. they expect him to lobby for funding. i think one thing first and foremost that must be remembered, houston is his hometown. additionally, republicans will be crafting this bill. there will not be a lot of democratic input. there is not a democratic president to deal with. and so this argument that we can't vote for it because of all the pork, republicans have the power to, quote-unquote, add this pork or not. lastly, he is up for re-election. and so the bets are he is safe -- he will win re-election but he has a challenge on the democratic side. >> it shows really why so many lawmakers have taken great pains over the years to not politicize issues of relief aid because they never know when they'll find themselves in the receiving end of needing billions upon

billions of dollars. robert: phil, the budget fight is complicated. right before harvey happened, there was, perhaps, almost a billion dollars in cuts scheduled for fema, federal emergency unit, and now it's all about giving more money to the federal government and some of these efforts. >> that's right. the budget proposal the trump administration laid out earlier this year had a number of cuts across the board in all these agencies but specifically in some of the disaster relief programs. i jotted down some notes here that national oceanic and atmospheric administration, $200 million in cuts. fema $667 million in cuts. hud, $3 billion in community development bloc grants, all programs that theoretically could be helping people in houston and in louisiana rebuild right now that the trump administration had targeted before the hurricane. robert: you think they'll walk it back? >> they may make some changes. there are discussions going on between the white house and congress about what the budget package would look like and it may not be fully he considered

until december if they do a short-term spending bill in september. we'll see what they do. >> you brought up a point when you were talking earlier in the day about how it really matters whether this aid package is connected. as part of must pass legislation. whether it's on the budget, which expires september 30, or on the debt ceiling to raise the debt ceiling. and you explain how the aid has to be attached to certain legislation to have a chance at bipartisan support? >> well, there is a core group of house republicans, conservatives, who want to see offsets. they feel this is money where the government is just printing money and that is no way to do it and they have already made clear that they're going to be skeptical and tight fifthed to some degree. about the aid money. it is really all in the house and if paul ryan can craft together a couple partner, two pieces of legislation and bring

every single democrat over, he can hozz 50. he can lose 60. of his own caucus and still get the measure passed. there's one other way that ted cruz and others may be able to make this more palatable. after sandy and new jersey, governor christie imposed a lot of new rebuilding regulations and mostly it was elevating. they had to elevate their homes so if another storm came through they wouldn't be back at the federal government begging for dollars. it could be that they could impose these kinds of requirements in order to get the money. and what they did in new jersey they did not attach those two things but what they did was they attached it to flood insurance costs. so if you follow their new rules, and improved a little bit, a couple of feet, lifted it a little bit higher, than your flood insurance would be like $7,000.

if you didn't do it, $31,000. robert: gene brought up this point that is so important. as aid is debated and discussed on capitol hill, a lot of it is going to be about should federal funds go to everything that happened in houston? if you think about houston you've covered it so well. very few people have flood insurance there. there are very few zoning laws. we saw president trump rowing back a lot of regulations earlier in august when it comes to who should get fema funds in these situations. >> it is a staggering crisis and i think you'll see a lot of people set aside their ideologies to get this city functional again. the projection is years. katrina only has been wrapping up in reese nt months with the disaster there. there is a conversation happening about houston and changes that need to be made. the main issue that created this

flood was over development over flood lands where plants were paved over that absorb all the water. so this is as much a man made disaster as a natural one. i think there are serious conversations going on. >> jeff, we haven't heard climate change be discussed in a significant way at all by the trump administration when it comes to these kind of disasters. >> i don't think we probably will to the point made, there is some reporting out tonight the trump administration might take a second look at some of the rules and regulations. the obama era rules and regulations as it relates to some of the ecological things they are trying to do. i can't imagine this would be the thing that forces the trump administration to change their whole world view as it relates to climate change. >> the big picture before the storm is that president trump and his administration did everything they could to try to undo the obama legacy on climate change. remember, trump in the campaign called climate change a hoax. he staffed his cabinet with people who don't believe in the science behind climate change and one by one they are looking

at these federal regulations to undo them, peel them back to make it easier for construction to happen, building to happen, for jobs. but it has these impacts when you have a natural disaster like we saw in harvey. robert: is this a turning point for president trump? are we seeing the president become less ideological? more focused on bipartisanship? is this more of a fleeting moment? >> i don't think wean. he's had so many turning points that all of our heads are spinning, right? the one thing that is consistent is that he doesn't stay consistent. this is a good week for him. that doesn't mean next week will be. he's had good days and good weeks before. and then all of a sudden you have something happen like charlottesville and everything just blows up again. so, i mean, i just think this is a president that's so unpredictable that i don't think you could point to any particular moment and pin it down. >> i'll add one thing.

i think the trump administration's calculus was pretty transparent in getting him there early. they wanted to avoid the direct comparison to the way george w. bush handled katrina, right? the other thing i think the president had going for him, was that the people who he put in charge of addressing the relief effort actually unlike the george w. bush administration had deep experience in emergency management. even general kelly as chief of staff who was the former d.h.s., head of d.h.s. and so in that way i think he gets deserved high marks for that response. robert: that is a great place to turn. the president faces a choice about who he has representing him, whether at fema with brock long, choices on policy about how this presidency is defined and beyond hurricane harvey and the tragedy in houston immigration policy is also on the minds of many in texas where there is a large immigrant population. president trump has said he'll announce his decision about the

future of the deferred action for childhood arrivals program next tuesday. prp you remember established doca to protect undocumented young people brought to this country as children. here is what mr. trump said about doca back in february. president trump: it is a very, very difficult subject for me. but you have some absolutely incredible kids. i would say mostly. they were brought here in such a way -- it is a very, very tough subject. we'll deal with doca with heart. >> paul ryan and others are urging the president not to rescind doca. it brings up the question, no issues debated in isolation and president trump is looking at doca as people in houston are looking for new construction. you have 120,000 people in texas covered under the doca program. do you see houston in any way changing the president's tune when it comes to this signature

issue of immigration? >> i don't know about the president's tune but i think within the state right now whether talking about the border wall or any other really divisive issue or doca, there is just no band width for it. houston is the population center of the state. even though it is a massive state everyone knows someone there affected by this. this is a really furious rush to deal with the problem at hand and everything else is a distraction. robert: phil, the president just seems torn when it comes to d.o.c.a. why is that? >> he does. he is a hard liner when it comes to immigration broadly. we all know the chants from the campaign rallies about the border wall but this d.o.c.a. program is one piece where he is not so easily pinned down and he is hearing a lot from different sides. as we just heard him say he is thinking about the issue with heart, hearing from his daughter, but also from a lot of business c.e.o.'s, and others in his administration saying don't terminate this program. this is important. these are americans. these are people who are growing

up here. and have come here through no fault of their own. at the same time he is trying to satisfy this restive base that wants a solution to the immigration issue, to the illegal immigration issue. they want an answer. >> and he does have a middle path he could take. it is possible what he could do is not terminate the program but announce he is phasing it out. what that would do, these visas last for two years and then they have to be renewed. they would stop issuing renewals. this would benefit him in two ways. he could go back to his base and say i did it. it's ending. d.o.c.a. as we know it. it would also create this steady drip, drip bit of pressure on congress to step in and pass a dreamer's law. and they've had them on the books but in the first, if he goes this route, in the first quarter 55,000 of the kids, the

d.o.c.a. kids would lose their visas. the next quarter it's almost 80,000. you can see how the pressure would build on congress. >> i spent most of the week talking to dreamers, the term used for d.o.c.a. participants. the words they hear from the razorback ring hollow. today he said we love dreamers and we think dreamers are terrific. the thing is they do not believe the president who has been reflexively against pretty much every obama policy would in some way defend this one. what they feel like and i talked to one guy who crossed with his mom illegally from mexico to arizona when he was 10, he is now 29, i said you've been here 19 years. why haven't you applied for citizenship? his response was he didn't see a line to get in. there was no route. he couldn't get a family sponsored immigration because his entire family was here illegally. he didn't qualify for the program for high school workers. d.o.c.a. is all he has. he feels like if the president does take steps to phase it out he'll lose his driver's license, his work authorization, he feels

like he has a huge target on his back because in order to get d.o.c.a. protection he had to hand over all of his information to the government to pass a background check. robert: that is so true. this affects hundreds of thousands of people's lives who are here in the united states but, abby, i wonder about gene's point. if the burden shifts to congress to pass legislation could we expect house speaker ryan and leader mcconnell in the senate to cobble together something that conservatives could like but in effect keeps d.o.c.a. going? >> i could imagine that happening and it is just really hard to see how they can spend a lot of time on that issue when they've got 50 other things blowing up at the same time. my guess is they're just looking for the quickest solution they can find. >> the last time the dreamer bill came up in the senate, it got 55 votes. so that's how close they came. it needed 60 because of the filibuster rule. but i think if you add this kind of pressure to those senators,

where they're hearing from those families all across the country, they might be able to get the last five votes. in the house the question is what would the democrats do? if the democrats were to line up behind a bill, then paul ryan has a lot more room. >> trump's advisers know how explosive this is politically especially with the hurricane recovery going on in texas. our friend hailey jackson asked at the press briefing today about a man who is a dreamer and is covered in the d.o.c.a. program providing relief work to help those in the hurricane, and the press secretary sarah sanders couldn't really provide an answer for what would happen to that gentleman. these are the stories we're going to hear on the news and in the newspapers and on the radio over the next few weeks if they were to phase out the program. robert: this week in particular shows how politics, this is not an academic pursuit. >> harvey and d.o.c.a. have real life consequences and affect people in very real ways. robert: abby, when you think about the president do you think he is getting influenced by general kelly his new chief of staff, as phil said his son-in-law jared kushner, his

daughter ivanka, is he maybe changing a bit? >> he seems somewhat more predictable a little bit like going down. there is some more organization to what we're seeing and he certainly hasn't inflamed things this week like it has been in the past. robert: we have to leave it there because before we go i want to pause to send our thoughts and prayers to all the people in texas who have been affected by harvey. if you would like to help the victims of harvey who will be in need for many months to come, make sure you check out our website for a list of charities where you can donate money or

volunteer if you are in the area. you can find that at washington week.org/harvey relief. our conversation will continue on the washington week extra. we'll tell you why president trump may be on a collision course with his new chief of staff, general john kelly. you can find that on our website later tonight at pbs.org/washington week. i'm robert costa. have a great weekend.

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they understand the challenges of today and research the technologies of tomorrow. some call them veterans. we call them part of our team. >> additional funding is provided by -- newman's own foundation, donating all profits from newman's own food products to charity and nourishing the common good. the ethics and excellence in journalism foundation. koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org.]

narrator: a kqed television♪production. ♪ masters: los angeles might fool itself into thinking it's conquered nature. to quench its thirst, it built aqueducts to sip from distant watersheds. to guard against the occasional, but inevitable storms, it re-engineered its river, creeks, and steams into concrete flood control channels. to make the land safe and suitable for modern industrial life, it drained its wetlands, paved over its prairies, and cleared the area of predatory animals. in this episode, "lost l.a."