WASHINGTON — Under intense pressure from New York and New Jersey, Congress adopted legislation Friday that would provide $9.7 billion to cover insurance claims filed by people whose homes were damaged or destroyed by superstorm Sandy.
The measure is the first, and least contentious, part of a much larger aid package sought by the affected states to help homeowners and local governments recover costs associated with the storm. The House has pledged to take up the balance of the aid package Jan. 15.
The House passed the insurance measure 354-67; it then cleared the Senate by unanimous consent. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the measure into law.
In the House, all of the votes against the aid came from Republicans, who have objected that no cuts in other programs had been identified to pay for the measure despite the nation’s long-term deficit problem. The 67 Republicans who voted against the measure included 17 freshman lawmakers, suggesting that the new class will provide support to the sizable group of anti-spending conservatives already in the House.
On his first major House vote, Rep. Tom Cotton of Dardanelle, Ark., voted against the measure. Arkansas’ three other House members - all Republicans - voted for the bill.
“I pledged throughout my campaign to confront America’s debt crisis and today I upheld that pledge by voting against legislation that would have added another $10 billion to our staggering national debt because it did not offset that funding for the national flood-insurance program with equal spending cuts,” Cotton, a Republican, said in a statement.
Candace Martin, a spokesman for the Democratic Party of Arkansas, called Cotton’s vote “sad.”
She said the funding will help people who had suffered hardship as a result of the storm and invigorate the region’s economy.
“Tom Cotton’s vote shows little compassion,” Martin said.
Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, brought the bill to the House floor after he drew criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike for adjourning the previous Congress earlier this week without taking up a $60.4 billion aid bill that the Senate had passed to finance recovery efforts in the hurricane-battered states. Among those most critical of Boehner were several leading Republicans, including Rep. Peter King of Long Island, who is a senior member of Congress, and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who is a possible presidential contender in 2016.
Friday’s developments provided a second example in a week of a bill approved with more Democratic support than Republican backing. Boehner pulled the bill from the floor late Tuesday, worried he would have trouble corralling GOP votes for it from members exhausted from a debate over a bill to avert the “fiscal cliff” by raising taxes on top earners.
The bill adopted Friday would give the National Flood Insurance Program the authority to borrow $9.7 billion to fill claims stemming from damage caused by Sandy and other disasters.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which administers the flood insurance program, recently notified Congress that it would run out of money within the next week to cover claims filed by individuals.
The government already has spent about $2 billion on the emergency response to the late October storm, one of the worst ever in the Northeast. It slammed the Atlantic coastline from North Carolina to Maine, with the worst damage occurring in New York City and its suburbs, New Jersey and Connecticut. The storm is blamed for 140 deaths.
FEMA’s disaster relief fund still has about $4.3 billion, enough to pay for emergency response efforts into early spring, according to officials.
“The administration is pleased that Congress has taken action to ensure that FEMA continues to have the funds to cover flood insurance claims, including over 100,000 claims from Hurricane Sandy the agency has already received,” Clark Stevens, a White House spokesman, said in a statement. “We continue to urge Congress to take up and pass the full supplemental request submitted last year to ensure affected communities have the support they need for longer term recovery.”
Congress’ action did not fully mollify lawmakers from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and other states struck by the storm. Some officials continued to criticize the chamber’s leadership for failing to act more quickly on the larger aid package, saying it provided the necessary financing to help the region rebuild.
“I am optimistic and worried,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. “Optimistic because there is pressure on the House to produce. Worried because I know how difficult it is to get things through the Congress.”
Christie and Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, a Democrat, issued a similarly cautious statement.
“Today’s action by the House was a necessary and critical first step towards delivering aid to the people of New Jersey and New York,” the governors said. “While we are pleased with this progress, today was just a down payment, and it is now time to go even further and pass the final and more complete, clean disaster aid bill.”
The overall measure would provide money to help homeowners and small-business owners rebuild; to repair bridges, tunnels and transportation systems; to reimburse local governments for overtime costs of police, fire and other emergency services; and to replenish shorelines. It also would finance an assortment of longer-term projects that would help the regions prepare for future storms.
Some Republicans have been critical of the size of the proposed aid package and have suggested that it includes unnecessary spending on items that are not directly related to the hurricane, such as $150 million for fisheries in Alaska and $2 million for museum roofs in Washington. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J., said Friday that the measure the House votes on this month would “strip out the extraneous spending directed to states not affected by the storm.”
“Today’s vote is a key step in getting critical federal assistance to the residents, businesses and communities devastated by Hurricane Sandy,” LoBiondo, who voted for Friday’s measure, said in a statement. “I hope my colleagues recognize politics has no place when dealing with a disaster and that the overwhelming bipartisan support demonstrated today is present as the remaining federal aid is considered.”
In the House debate leading up to the vote Friday, several lawmakers said it had taken too long for Congress to provide federal aid to the region and urged the speaker to make good on his pledge to bring the $51 billion aid package to the floor this month.
“We have been waiting for 11 weeks,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York City. “It is long overdue.”
The Club For Growth, a conservative group, urged lawmakers to oppose the flood insurance bill. “Congress should not allow the federal government to be involved in the flood insurance industry in the first place, let alone expand the national flood insurance program’s authority,” the group said in a statement.
Former Republican vice presidential candidate and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan was among the Republicans opposing the measure.
Ryan said in a statement that he voted against the bill because “it would be irresponsible to raise an insolvent program’s debt ceiling without making the necessary reforms.” The flood insurance program is already $20 billion in debt, he said.
At a news conference, Schumer said Ryan’s reasoning “is just terribly harsh to a homeowner who’s lost his home. Should they sit around and wait two years” until “we reform the program?”
The House vote was the first significant legislative act of the new Congress. The House later recessed until Jan. 14. Likewise, after taking action on the Sandy-related legislation, the Senate recessed until Jan. 21, when it will return for inaugural ceremonies.
Information for this article was contributed by Raymond Hernandez of The New York Times; by Alex Daniels of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; by Rosalind S. Helderman of The Washington Post; by James Rowley, Brian Faler and Freeman Klopott of Bloomberg News and by Andrew Miga, Andrew Taylor, Jim Abrams and Katie Zezima of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/05/2013