'The idea is to get it to $60 billion. We get the vote. That’s all we can ask for,' said Rep. King. House rolls out smaller Sandy aid bill

House Republicans rolled out their scaled-back $27 billion Hurricane Sandy disaster aid bill Tuesday setting up a floor debate in which Northeast lawmakers have been promised a crack this week at adding $33 billion more to meet the Senate-passed spending level.

New Jersey Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, a close ally of that state’s Gov. Chris Christie, is charged with managing the amendment, and the whole rapid-fire scenario is one that reflects the strong influence of Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.).


“The idea is to get it to $60 billion. We get the vote. That’s all we can ask for,” Rep. Peter King told POLITICO. The New York Republican was optimistic that with solid Democratic support, he could win over enough of his colleagues to succeed.

“We would need about 30 to 35 Republicans to do that.” King said. And one of the Democrats he will be relying on is Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J.), with his ties to his own party leadership.

“I would rather just vote on the Senate bill,” Andrews said. “But this would give us a chance to get the funding we deserve.”

After weeks of relative silence, the decision to move so quickly now in the very last days of this Congress is striking. The 31-page bill itself — and the 49-page amendment to be managed by Frelinghuysen — were posted only shortly before noon on Tuesday, and members were told to be prepared for votes by the end of the day.

As it worked out, the ensuing turmoil over the much larger tax deal made this impossible, pushing the promised floor votes into Wednesday. Frelinghuysen remained hopeful Tuesday night but conceded that the outcry in his party for more spending cuts made the emergency supplemental “a little bit” harder to sell.

While notoriously aloof, Frelinghuysen comes to the debate as not just Christie’s own congressman but a veteran member of the Appropriations Committee with influence over defense and energy and water projects. These are useful credentials when trying to build coalitions with Southern Republicans. And just as Gulf Coast senators helped the Northeast after their own experience with Katrina, Gulf Coast House members may turn out to be important in the Sandy fight.

One who promises to help Frelinghuysen is Rep. Bill Young (R-Fla.), himself the chairman of the powerful defense appropriations panel. “I’ll be with him when it comes up,” Young told POLITICO.

The $27 billion measure — which will be managed by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) — closely mirrors a Republican alternative tested in the Senate last week by Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.).

Coats argued then that it should be seen as a first installment to cover the immediate recovery needs of the next three months. While he lost, he drew strong support from fellow Republicans, and Rogers’s plan tracks his work while adding more for the national flood insurance program.

Nonetheless, the costs are large. “The state of Georgia runs on $20 billion a year. The whole state. It’s tough,” said Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.). And it’s also unclear how the scaled back package will be received by governors in the region, especially Christie, who has been working the phones pressing for the House to act.

In turn, Republican leaders would like to get some endorsement of their strategy as the best way to move forward, given conservative opposition to the larger Senate bill.

Thus far, Christie’s office has been silent. And what the GOP wants is not an easy lift, since the White House and Senate have already pared back the initial requests made by Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.