Congress delays Sandy relief

The House of Representatives approved a $9.7 billion relief package for victims of Hurricane Sandy last week, but waited to consider a request for another $51 billion in federal aid. The approved funds will replenish the National Flood Insurance Program, which will help residents of storm-ravaged New York and New Jersey. But many House Republicans are skeptical of the larger bill up for a vote on Jan. 15, complaining that the Senate loaded it with pork-barrel spending for other areas of the country. Speaker John Boehner was lambasted last week by lawmakers from New York and New Jersey, including Republican Gov. Chris Christie, for failing to schedule a vote on Sandy relief in the last session of Congress, thus delaying funding vital for recovery. This, said Christie, is “why people hate Washington.”

The House was right to “take more than a day or two” to vet the $51 billion package passed by the Senate, said The Washington Post in an editorial. Hastily written disaster bills are notorious “vehicles for pork.” This one included $150 million for Alaskan fisheries and $2 million to fix the Smithsonian Institution’s roof. Christie should lay off his high-drama scolding of his fellow Republicans, said Investor’s Business Daily. The blame here goes to the Democrats, who figure “a devastating hurricane is a spending opportunity that should not be wasted.”

This isn’t really about pork, said John Avlon in TheDailyBeast.com. A total of 67 Republican congressmen voted against last week’s flood insurance bill—including hypocrites like Alabama’s Mo Brooks, who had no objection to federal aid when tornados tore up his district in 2011. “Hurricane relief should be a no-brainer,” not an opportunity for an ideological purity test.

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This dispute proves that federal relief funding is “due for an upgrade,” said Juliette Kayyem in The Boston Globe. Instead of funding costly emergency measures, we should be spending on incentives for better long-term planning, like encouraging people not to “build homes too close to a shoreline.” Sandy’s victims, however, need help now. “The ground rules should change, but not for those who suffered under the old regime.”