WASHINGTON — President Trump’s request for a multibillion-dollar down payment for initial Harvey recovery efforts is growing.

Republican leaders are already making plans to use the aid package, certain to be overwhelmingly popular, to win speedy approval of a contentious increase in the federal borrowing limit.

A senior House Republican, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deliberations were private, disclosed the approach. It ignores objections from House conservatives who are insisting that disaster money for Harvey should not be paired with the debt limit increase. Other senior Republican aides cautioned that no final decision had been made, and Democrats, whose votes would be needed in the Senate, have not signed off on the approach.

A senior Republican source in Washington said Friday evening that Trump’s request to refill rapidly shrinking Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster funds is going up by about $2 billion, bringing the total for the disaster aid package to about $8 billion. It was expected to be publicly released late Friday.

For Republican lawmakers who support a straightforward increase in the debt limit, pairing it with Harvey money makes the unpopular vote easier to cast. Congress must act by Sept. 29 to increase the U.S. $19.9 trillion debt limit to permit the government to continue borrowing money to pay bills like Social Security and interest payments.