Facing bipartisan outrage, House leadership abandons plan to postpone Sandy relief vote

Republicans and Boehner himself.

“Shame on Congress,” Christie said.

Christie, a New Jersey Republican, went on to accuse the Congressional leadership of his own party of “duplicity” and “selfishness,” and called the decision not to hold a vote on the storm-relief measure “irresponsible.” He said the legislation had fallen victim to “palace intrigue,” and “it’s why the American people hate Congress.”

Following the meeting between Boehner and King, however, some members who had earlier criticized Boehner and Cantor, by Wednesday sounded more conciliatory. Representative Michael Grimm (R-New York), who had on Tuesday called the postponement of the vote a “betrayal” – he said: “It’s [the vote to approve the relief bill] not about politics… It’s about human lives” — later said it was “never in question” that Boehner and Cantor wanted to help affected states.

“For whatever reasons the speaker has decided not to bring it to a vote this week. Obviously we disagreed with that but that’s in the past,” King said.

Fox New notes that some conservatives had expressed concern about the sheer size of the Sandy bill — the Senate-passed version was for $60.4 billion – which was supposed to be approved at the very same time lawmakers were struggling to find and agreed-upon scheme to reduce the government’s annual deficits and the accumulating national debt.

An attempt the House Appropriations Committee to deal with the tension between budget cuts and the approval of a large relief bill, did not work.

New York and New Jersey asked for a relief bill in the amount of $82 billion. The White House pared back that request, submitting a bill to Congress for $60.4 billion in relief, which the Senate passed.

On Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee produced a bill which was significantly smaller than the White House-Senate bill: $27 billion.

The leadership plan was to put the $27 billion bill for a vote, but allow a separate vote on a $33 billion amendment, which would be submitted by New York and New Jersey lawmakers. The assumption was that many Republicans would oppose the amendment, but would probably approve the $27 billion Appropriations Committee proposal.

After trenchant objections from New York and New Jersey Republicans – who were joined by many other lawmakers in impassioned speeches on the floor of the House — the leadership abandoned its original plan, and would now submit the White House-Senate $60.4 billion measure for a vote. The only thing the leadership insisted upon was that the money would be released to the states in two installments.

In addition to causing 120 deaths, Sandy damaged or destroyed more than 72,000 homes and businesses in New Jersey. In New York, 305,000 housing units were damaged or destroyed, and more than 265,000 businesses were affected.