WASHINGTON — The House on Tuesday completed a $60.2 billion aid plan to rebuild communities damaged by Hurricane Sandy two weeks after Northeast Republicans denounced Speaker John Boehner’s cancellation of an earlier vote.
The House voted 241-180 to add a $50.5 billion package of aid to a $9.7 billion measure passed by both houses of Congress on Jan. 4. Tuesday’s bill includes $33.5 billion for long-term reconstruction and $17 billion to meet the immediate needs of Sandy victims in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Among Arkansas’ delegation, only Rep. Rick Crawford voted for the bill. Reps. Tim Griffin, Steve Womack and Tom Cotton opposed the aid package. All four are Republicans.
The plan now goes to the Senate, which voted for $60 billion on Dec. 28 during the previous session of Congress.
“There is a federal responsibility to act,” said Oklahoma Republican Tom Cole. “We have a national interest in getting this region on its feet as quickly as possible.”
Residents of the three states “produce over 17 percent of the wealth of this country,” Cole said, so “having that area up and operational and prospering is critical to the prosperity of the country.”
Sandy struck the Northeast on Oct. 29 packing hurricane-force winds and driving floodwaters that killed more than 125 people in 10 states. It inundated New York City’s subway system and ravaged shore communities from New Jersey’s Atlantic City to Bridgeport, Conn.
House Republicans representing the region and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie protested when Boehner canceled a planned Jan. 1 vote on the package. They pointed out that Congress passed $51.8 billion in relief within 10 days after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in 2005.
Boehner, an Ohio Republican, then scheduled a vote on Jan. 4, the second day of the new session. That day, the House and Senate agreed to raise the national flood-insurance program’s borrowing authority by $9.7 billion.
That enabled the floodinsurance program to continue paying 120,000 claims from property owners in the Northeast whose homes and businesses were damaged by flooding caused by Sandy.
“The piecemeal approach has hurt our disaster-response effort,” said New York Democrat Louise Slaughter. “Without knowing whether more aid is absolutely going to come, governors and mayors can’t sign contracts with construction companies” and plan rebuilding, she said.
The debate reflected divisions about financing disaster relief. On final passage, 49 Republicans joined 192 Democrats to vote in favor of the aid package.
Disaster aid “shouldn’t be used as a grab bag of spending having nothing to do with emergency relief,” said California Republican Tom Mc-Clintock.
Citing a Congressional Budget Office analysis, Mc-Clintock said most of the $60.2 billion package “won’t even be spent this year.”
New Jersey Republican Frank LoBiondo said people in the Northeast “are not just whining, they are not just uncomfortable, they are devastated. They’ve had everything ripped from them.”
“Disaster means disaster and emergency means emergency,” LoBiondo said. “We were there for you, Florida, when you had your hurricane and God bless you if you think you are not going to have another hurricane.”
The $17 billion measure offered by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, a Kentucky Republican, includes $3.9 billion for the repair of publicly owned hospitals, local roads and facilities operated by gas and electric utilities.
The House defeated an amendment that would have offset the $17 billion through an across-the-board 1.63 percent cut in discretionary appropriations for fiscal 2013, including defense.
The $33.5 billion measure, sponsored by New Jersey Republican Rodney Frelinghuysen, would give the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers almost $4 billion to clear navigation channels, repair damaged beaches and prevent shore erosion in future storms.
Boehner decided not to proceed Jan. 1 on the aid plan just after the House voted to raise taxes on individuals earning more than $400,000 and couples earning more than $450,000. A number of House Republicans said the emergency aid should be offset by spending cuts, according to former Rep. Steve LaTourette of Ohio, a Republican who left office Jan. 3.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 01/16/2013