Congress finally passes scaled-back Hurricane Sandy aid bill

John Boehner got a lot of grief from his own party for stalling the legislation

House Speaker John Boehner
(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The House on Friday voted, 354-67, to pass legislation that would provide the National Flood Insurance Program with $9.7 billion to pay out flood claims stemming from Hurricane Sandy. The Senate passed the bill hours later, ending, for now at least, a drama that saw House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) publicly put through a wood-chipper by members of his own party for tabling a $60 billion version of the legislation passed by the Senate.

Boehner's decision to spike the larger bill came shortly after the House passed the fiscal-cliff deal that raised taxes on the wealthiest Americans — a bitter pill to swallow for many in his caucus. Boehner reportedly concluded that he would have a bloody rebellion on his hands if he followed the tax hike with a bill asking for $60 billion in new spending, particularly since some House GOP members had demanded that the emergency aid be offset with cuts elsewhere in the budget. Boehner and his cohort were consequently lambasted by Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who blamed the hold-up on the "toxic internal politics of the House majority."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Ryu Spaeth

Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.