Thirty-eight Republicans joined 190 Democrats on the pivotal 228-192 vote. | REUTERS House passes $50B Sandy aid bill

The House approved nearly $50.6 billion in long-sought emergency aid to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy on Tuesday night, after Northeast lawmakers successfully added tens of billions to bring the package more in line with the White House’s initial request last month.

Thirty-eight Republicans joined 190 Democrats on the pivotal 228-192 vote, which effectively tripled the underlying $17 billion bill first recommended by the House Appropriations Committee leadership. Passage followed minutes later on a 241-180 roll call with the great majority of Republicans opposed but also powerless to stop the measure — or to cut the spending levels significantly.


Together with flood insurance monies already approved by Congress, the total Sandy-related assistance would be close to $60.4 billion — a commitment that roughly replicates what the Senate had promised in its aid bill. That was allowed to die in the preceding Congress by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).

Whether measured in dollars or emotions, Tuesday’s win was huge then for the region still struggling to recover from the October superstorm. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, will be in a much stronger position now to press for quick Senate action on the new House product and despite some Democratic grumbling, it is expected to move quickly onto President Barack Obama’s desk for his signature.

“The tradition of Congress being there and providing support for Americans during times of crisis, no matter where they live across this great country, lives on in today’s vote in the House of Representatives,” Christie and Cuomo said Tuesday night in a statement issued with Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy. “We anticipate smooth passage when this package moves back to the Senate for final approval and for this long-awaited relief to finally make its way to our residents.”

“While the House bill is not quite as good as the Senate bill, it is certainly close enough,” said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). “We will be urging the Senate to speedily pass the House bill and send it to the president’s desk.”

Near-solid Democratic support in the House was pivotal to the whole strategy, together with Christie and his close ally, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), working the phones and mining the Republican ranks for precious votes.

Winning on the first $17 billion was not hard: It passed 327 to 91 with 135 Republicans joining in support. But the whole debate posed something of an identity crisis for Republicans, given the huge cost and the fact that most of the money will be counted outside the appropriations caps set in the 2011 budget accords.

Conservatives mounted an attempt to offset the $17 billion by imposing a 1.63 percent across-the-board cut from current spending. But this failed 258 to 162 with 71 Republicans objecting, chiefly because of threatened cuts to the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“It is incumbent upon us to have the discussion about whether we have the money to do this and whether or not it’s important enough to us to pay for it,” said Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) in a vain appeal. “Are we willing and able to do without anything so that these people can get this money this year?”

A younger tier of House Republican leaders, including Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), backed the proposal. Prominent in opposition was House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.). And House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) weighed in heavily, saying the cut would affect the “good and the bad” without discretion.

In the long battle, Frelinghuysen and Christie have been odd-couple partners. Both are products of the Morris County Republican structure in New Jersey but are very different personalities.

The congressman is a press-shy blue blood from a political family that literally goes back generations, even centuries, in Congress.

In a remarkable moment Tuesday, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), whose own ancestry includes a great-great grandfather who was a leader of the Chickasaw tribe, spoke movingly of how a 19th-century Frelinghuysen forebear in the U.S. Senate had stood up against the forced removal of Native Americans from Southern states under Andrew Jackson’s administration.

Christie is more combative, not afraid to take on Boehner directly and warning conservatives to tread lightly when it comes to New Jersey. At the same time, his relationship with Cantor was an asset, and having helped behind the scenes, the Virginia Republican voted for the bill on final passage.

“New Jersey does not expect anything more [than] what was done for Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi in Katrina. Or what was done in Joplin, Mo., or what was done in floods in Iowa,” Christie told reporters this week. “But we will not accept anything less. If they want to make new rules about disasters, well they picked the wrong state.”

Christie’s chippy style seemed to spill over into the floor debate. Stepping out of New York’s shadows, New Jersey’s delegation was blunt and unapologetic about demanding help from regions it had helped in the past.

“We were there for you. We were there, Florida, when you had your hurricane,” said Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.). “God bless you if you think you aren’t going to have another hurricane. We need this. We need it now.”

“This is not an act of excess or charity,” said Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J.), reminding the House that New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are all donor states — sending more tax revenue to Washington each year then they typically get back in federal spending.

“All Americans will suffer if this economic engine is not rebuilt,” Andrews said.