hurricane sandy

House Republicans Get Around to Passing a Bit of Hurricane Sandy Aid

After more than two months of dillydallying and a much maligned decision by Speaker John Boehner to delay some more, the House of Representatives has gone ahead and approved a little relief for victims of Hurricane Sandy. Although most of the $60 billion package passed by the Senate is still stalled, Republicans in the House got it together enough today to pass a $9.7 billion Band-Aid in the form of borrowing authority for flood insurance. The bill was approved by a vote of 354 to 67, and approved by unanimous consent in the Senate.

The dozens of Republicans who opted to vote nay — including Paul Ryan — can be seen here, and probably on Chris Christie’s office dartboard soon.

New York politicians are not quite ready to forgive even those who voted with them today. Rep. Jerrold Nadler said the vote did “not excuse the callous action of the House the other night,” while Rep. Nita Lowey of Westchester said, “This bill is not enough. We don’t need a piecemeal approach.”

We have been waiting for 11 weeks,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney. “It is long overdue.”

In a joint statement, Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie called the bill a “critical first step” and urged Congress to “pass the final and more complete, clean disaster aid bill” worth $51 billion more, adding “today was just a down payment.”

This post has been updated throughout.

House Finally Passes Some Hurricane Sandy Aid