As expected, the U.S. Senate passed a $50.5 billion aid package for Superstorm Sandy on Monday and now the bill will head to President Barack Obama’s desk to be signed into law.
The bill passed overwhelmingly, 61-36, and now the regions ravaged by Sandy will begin to receive aid, three months later. Elected officials hailed the passage of the bill, initially threatened at the end of last year when Republican Speaker John Boehner failed to bring it up for a vote in the House of Representatives, drawing fire from Republicans and Democrats.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Gov. Daniel Malloy of Connecticut issued a joint statement celebrated the bill’s long-awaited passage.
“Despite the difficult path in getting to this moment, the Senate membership clearly recognized early on the urgency and necessity of approving the full aid package and its importance in rebuilding our battered infrastructure and getting our millions of affected residents back on their feet as quickly as possible,” the three governors said in a joint statement.
“To all Americans, we are grateful for their willingness to come to our aid as we take on the monumental task of rebuilding and we pledge to do the same should our fellow citizens find themselves facing unexpected and harsh devastation.”
The hurricane struck the East Coast on Oct. 29 of last year, causing billions of dollars in damage and more than 130 deaths. The aid package includes funding to repair transit systems in New York and New Jersey and for housing and other needs in the affected regions. Additional funds would go to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for disaster relief, while other funds are ticketed for restoration of highways damaged or destroyed in the storm. House officials
approved a $9.7 million relief bill Jan. 3 to enable FEMA to pay out claims to those victims who have federal flood insurance.
State Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. also welcomed the passage the bill.
“Following earlier approval by the United States House of Representatives, this affirmative vote by the Senate opens the door to allow needed resources to begin flowing to the people and areas who need assistance in rebuilding their lives in the wake of this devastating storm,” he said in a statement. “We need to provide direct aid to those who lost their homes, find ways to rebuild our communities, assist our businesses, rebuild our religious sites, bolster our infrastructure to make it more resilient to future catastrophic storms and other natural disasters, and otherwise help our state and its families to recover from the devastation we have suffered.”
It took time and a lot of persuasion to get the bill to Obama’s desk. In the debate leading up to the vote in the Senate, lawmakers faced the hurdle of an mendment backed by fiscal conservatives that proposed cuts in other programs to pay for the storm aid. Supporters of the amendment contended that fiscal discipline needed to be imposed because the aid package included pork, or unrelated spending items. For example, one of these items was $274 million
for Coast Guard initiatives in the Bahamas and Great Lakes.
Republican supporters of the amendment argued that Congress had to begin imposing fiscal discipline on itself and that the aid package included unrelated spending items, like $274 million debate over deficit spending.for Coast Guard initiatives in the Bahamas and Great Lakes.
Supporters of the package successfully argued that amending the bill would further delay aid from getting to victims by forcing the measure to be considered yet again in the House. Lawmakers from New York said residents couldn’t wait any longer.
By Ross Barkan
