December 28, 2013
New York Times Editoral
Republicans haven’t made it easy for the Northeast to get the $60.4 billion in aid it needs to recover from Hurricane Sandy. They have objected to the amount — which is considerably less than the $82 billion requested by the region’s governors — and tried to slash it. They have demanded that $3.4 billion of the aid for flood control be offset by spending cuts in other programs. And in the Senate, as on virtually all bills, they filibustered the aid package proposed by President Obama.
That filibuster was broken last week, allowing the Senate to pass the bill late on Friday. But it is not clear whether the House will even take up the bill in the remaining days of the session. If it does not, that will push desperately needed aid off until the next session of Congress, wasting weeks of time preparing and voting on a fresh bill.
Republican lawmakers in the House have said they only want to support direct repairs to the storm’s damage, rejecting as “stimulus” public works projects designed to reduce the effects of the next hurricane or flood. That’s a shortsighted approach that will eventually cost the government more money.
As it was, just to win enough votes to break the filibuster, Senate Democrats had to allow the $3 billion in flood-reduction money intended for the Northeast to be shared with Gulf-area states hurt by Hurricane Isaac in August. That region clearly has significant flooding risks that were not addressed through the usual appropriations process. But that process no longer exists, because of the extreme level of Congressional dysfunction caused by the Republicans’ constant use of the filibuster and the House’s inexhaustible demands for spending cuts.
This has led to the sad spectacle of other states trading votes on a huge disaster like Sandy to get necessary funds to deal with damage from a lesser disaster like Isaac or the drought. The overt horse-trading stains the disaster-response process and breeds public cynicism.
Responding to and preparing for natural disasters is one of government’s most important functions. Each time a huge storm hits, lawmakers should provide immediate relief without having to worry about someone like Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania demanding that spending be cut elsewhere, or House members putting ideology before common-sense preparation. The House has until Jan. 3 to cast this vital vote.
Source: The New York Times
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