Congress passes $9.7B Sandy relief bill

Updated: 2:26 p.m. ET

The House and Senate today passed a bill approving more than $9 billion in aid for regions impacted by superstorm Sandy, the first of two Sandy relief measures making their way through Congress between now and the end of the month.

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Schumer praises passage of Sandy relief bill

The measure, which allows FEMA to temporarily increase the National Flood Insurance program's borrowing limit by $9.7 billion, will now head to the White House for the president's signature.

On January 15, the first full day of legislative business on Capitol Hill, House Speaker John Boehner is expected to bring up a vote for additional Sandy relief measures totaling the remaining $51 billion requested by President Obama.

• Christie blasts Boehner on Sandy bill: "Shame on Congress"
• Amid backlash, Boehner schedules Sandy vote

The House was expected to vote on a Sandy relief package earlier this week, before the close of the 112th Congress. But after the House passed a Democrat-crafted deal to avert the so-called "fiscal cliff" -- a deal many Republicans disliked due to a lack of spending cuts and an increase in tax rates -- Boehner pulled the Sandy legislation at the last minute.

His decision was met with outrage on both sides of the aisle, and Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie lashed out at the speaker in a press conference the following day. Several House Republicans also threatened to vote against Boehner's bid to be re-elected Speaker of the House.

In light of the backlash, Boehner quickly scheduled the $9.7 billion flood insurance package for today and pledged to conduct a vote on the remaining funds on January 15.

This first portion of Sandy aid was expected to pass, though there were objections among conservative Republicans. The Club for Growth sent out a press release urging House members to vote "no" on the bill, arguing that "Congress should not allow the federal government to be involved in the flood insurance industry in the first place, let alone expand the national flood insurance program's authority."

Republican Jeb Hensarling, R-Tex., also expressed his opposition to the legislation, citing general objections to the national flood insurance program as well as a desire for the $9.7 billion to be offset by reductions elsewhere.

"There is no doubt that Hurricane Sandy rendered unspeakable damage to both lives and property on our East Coast," he said in remarks on the House floor. "The tragic reality [is] the national flood insurance program is broke. It is beyond broke... Emergency bills like this should not come to the floor without offsets to pay for it or structural reforms to ensure that taxpayer bailouts are never needed again. Regrettably, less than 24 hours into a new congress, there is simply not time for this."

Democrats fiercely defended the legislation, and continued to blast Republicans for stalling on the original vote.

"The victims of superstorm sandy can wait no longer. It's been 11 weeks," added Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., in remarks during debate over the bill. "Haven't they suffered and waited long enough?"

Following the bill's passage through the Senate, Christie and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., lauded what they called a "critical first step towards delivering aid to the people of New Jersey and New York." But they emphasized that Congress' work is not finished.

"While we are pleased with this progress, today was just a down payment and it is now time to go even further and pass the final and more complete, clean disaster aid bill," the governors said in a joint statement. "We are trusting Congress to act accordingly on January 15th and pass the final $51 billion instrumental for long-term rebuilding in order for New Jersey, New York and our people to recover after the severe devastation of Hurricane Sandy."

[Type_Z]

http://conservativevideos.com/2013/01/hurricane-sandy-victims-rant-against-obama-congress-we-run-this-country-not-you/

[hillzagain]

For those who don't feel that this package was enough, the Senate GOP offered a $24 billion dollar package that was killed by Senate Democrats.

[levelheadedtoo]

New movie coming out: "Griswalds Move to Washington" It is about a dysfunctional group of people that move into DC and can't seem to get anything done. The plot is based on a real story. They are already working on the sequel "Griswalds are re-elected" The producers see no end in the series.

[carolo43]

There was no pork in this Bill so what will they use for an excuse that this Bill took 6 weeks? If there was a problem with the first Bill, it should have been sent back to the Senate immediately for amendments and taken care of in a timely manner. What did Boehner do, throw it in a basket somewhere and forget it existed? They had no problem amending Obamacare 33 times.

[carolo43]

There was no pork in this Bill so what will they use for an excuse that this Bill took 6 weeks? If there was a problem with the first Bill, it should have been sent back to the Senate immediately for amendments and taken care of in a timely manner. What did Boehner do, throw it in a basket somewhere and forget it existed? They had no problem amending Obamacare 33 times.

[bowlan2112]

the sad fact to this is most of the money is pork.
most of the money will never get to the man on the streat.
we have been shafted again.

[pr_boxer]

If the Conservatives are so hot for a "off set" I'd suggest, bring home the US Forces in Germany.

[bobnjersey]

[The House and Senate today passed a bill approving more than $9 billion in aid for regions impacted by superstorm Sandy]
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wow ... nowhere in the text of the story or either of the two accompanying videos is there a single reference to what the vote was on this bill.

globalpost.com didn't seem to have that problem.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/130104/sandy-relief-package-be-voted-congress-today

[DisgruntledIndependent]

What surprises me is that Katrina victims received a $60 billion package from Congress days after the storm. Why is suddenly "pork" now to help people who have lost their homes. We need to rethink our priorities in government--helping our people, or building roads in Afghanistan:

http://thenationaldiscussion.blogspot.com/2013/01/9.html

[disinterested-3rd-party]

For all you guys that think its OK to allow Congress to give away money to storm victims, try reading the actual bill the Congress scammers passed today. This is just a small sample of what was included in the bill. Still got that "feel-good" feeling?




$5.3B to Army Corps of Engineers (that's more than their annual budget).
$150 million in fisheries disaster recovery in Alaska, Mississippi, and American Samoa.
$56.8 million for charting the debris from last year's Japanese tsunami.
$41 million for eight military bases including Guantanamo Bay.
$100 million for the federal Head Start day care program.
$188 million for new Amtrak lines (not repair, whole new lines).
$20 million for a nationwide "Water Resources Priorities Study".
$4 million for the Kennedy Space Center.

[681960]

This doesn't look Sandy storm relief money to me.What a joke this government is.