House Republicans Refuse To Hold A Vote On Hurricane Sandy Relief

After finally passing the Senate’s bill to narrowly avoid the fiscal cliff late Tuesday evening, Republicans put an end to the do-nothing 112th Congress by refusing to hold a vote on Hurricane Sandy disaster relief funding.

Late last week, the Senate passed a $60 billion relief package with the help of several Republicans, but Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) did not even take up the bill. On Wednesday morning, Boehner’s office told The Hill that the Speaker intends to pass a relief bill in the new Congress later this month, but the delay means that the Senate will have to draft and pass an entirely new bill for the 113th Congress.

A parade of congressmen from the impacted region raised strong objections on the House floor, including several Republicans. “Mr. Speaker, tonight’s action not to hold this vote on the supplemental is absolutely indefensible,” said Rep. Peter King (R-NY), whose Long Island district was among the most heavily impacted by the storm. “Everybody played by the rules, except tonight when the rope is pulled out from under us. Absolutely inexcusable, absolutely indefensible. We have a moral obligation to hold this vote.”

Watch it:

Hurricane Sandy caused an estimated $78.7 billion in damage across New York and New Jersey alone when it made landfall in late October. In the last few years, House Republicans have embraced the practice of holding disaster relief hostage in exchange for Democratic concessions on spending cuts, but in each instance they have ultimately backed down and passed relief aid.

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GOP Rep. Says Boehner ‘Put A Knife In The Back Of New Yorkers’ By Blocking Vote On Sandy Relief

Rep. Peter King (R-NY)

A furious Rep. Peter King (R-NY) took aim at his own party in a Fox News interview Wednesday, a day after House GOP leaders broke their promise to hold a vote on a Hurricane Sandy relief bill. King said the decision by the House Republican leadership to scrap a planned vote on a multi- billion aid package amounted to a “knife in the back” of those hit hardest by the bill. The Senate had approved a $60.4 billion aid bill last Friday, but the House move appeared to scuttle any chance of a bill before the new Congress begins Thursday.

King said that after the move, he feels no obligation to vote with his leadership and suggested that East Coast residents who contribute to the GOP are insane. King complained that Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor reneged on their promise to hold a vote on the package, without explanation:

In his explanation of the events of Tuesday night, he noted that neither Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) nor Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) offered any explanation for the broken promise:

KING: No one even told us, the Speaker walked off the floor, told an aide to the Majority Leader that the Congress was finished. There were no votes and they come back and told us. Listen, I’m not taking this as personal offense. I’m talking about the thousands of people in my district, hundreds of thousands of people throughout the New York-New Jersey area. Within 10 days after Katrina, $60 billion was appropriated. Nine weeks after Sandy, not one penny has been appropriated. And let me just make this one point. These Republicans have no problem finding New York when they’re out raising millions of dollars. They’re in New York all the time filling pockets with money from New Yorkers. I’m saying anyone from New York and New Jersey who contributes one penny to Congressional Republicans is out of their mind. Because what they did last night was put a knife in the back of New Yorkers and New Jerseyans, it was an absolute disgrace. …

Why the Republican party has bias against New York, this bias against New Jersey, this bias against the Northeast. They wonder why they’re becoming minority party. Why we’ll be party of the permanent minority. What they did last night was so immoral, so disgraceful, so irresponsible. They’re supposed to be the party of family values. And you have families that are starving, families that are suffering, families that are spread all over living in substandard housing. This was a disgrace. They are inexcusable. And they have had it. As far as I’m concerned I’m on my own. They’re going to have to go a long way to get my vote on anything.

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King noted that while national Republicans were all-too-happy to put Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) out as a surrogate during the 2012 campaign, with this move they “knifed him in the back.”

In a separate interview on CNN, he added that Boehner refused to meet with him and yelled at Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), “I’m not going to meet with you people.”

A fellow New York Republican, Rep. Michael Grimm, echoed King’s remarks, calling the leadership’s move a “personal betrayal,” and noting that “the people of this country that have been devastated are looking at this as a betrayal by the Congress and by the nation, and that is just untenable and unforgivable.”

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