Hurricane Irene

Obama Asks Congress For $500M In Disaster Relief, Cantor Does Not Object

Susan Crabtree | September 10, 2011, 9:48AM

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA)

The White House late Friday afternoon sent its request to Congress for $500 million in immediate relief to help the victims of Hurricane Irene and other recent disasters and avoid running out of response funds before the end of the month.

The request was just a small portion of the total $5.1 billion the President asked for in order to fill the coffers of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has become so strained for funds that it has put longer-term building projects on hold in order to ensure enough money remains for victims of Irene.

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Harry Reid

Reid Seeks To Call GOP Bluff By Pushing Clean Emergency Disaster Relief Bill

Brian Beutler | September 7, 2011, 3:22PM

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)

Sensing an advantage after some Republicans claimed disaster relief funding should be offset with cuts to other programs, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will hold a vote on a clean, stand-alone, $6 billion disaster relief bill.

"We need to get this relief funding to the American people as quickly as we can, and we're going to do that -- I'm going to bring a free-standing bill, and we're going to have a chance to vote on it," Reid told reporters at his weekly Capitol briefing Wednesday. "Some of my Republican colleagues are trying to -- I was going to say something that was vulgar and I'm not going to do that -- are trying to cater to the Tea Party by holding up relief efforts."

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Polls

Rasmussen Poll: Offsetting Disaster Aid With Cuts Not Such A Bad Idea

Kyle Leighton | September 7, 2011, 10:20AM

Hey, if a hurricane hits another part of the country, that's not your problem, right? Apparently, that view is more widely held than one might think.

In the days before Hurricane Irene ravaged the east coast, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) floated the idea that disaster aid from the federal government should be offset with spending cuts in a similar way to the GOP demands on the debt ceiling deal. The idea, though pretty consistent orthodoxy from Cantor, was loudly criticized, but Cantor doubled down. And a new poll out on Wednesday from Rasmussen shows a surprising amount of support for that very position.

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Hurricane Irene

Hurricane Eric: Democrats See Opening In Cantor's Disaster Aid Offset Talk

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 2, 2011, 6:26AM

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA)

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's requirement that new disaster relief spending be funded with spending cuts has left members of his party open to attack, Democrats say, and they don't plan to waste the opportunity.

This week, the DCCC called on 25 East Coast Republican members to either stand with Cantor's call for offset disaster spending or publicly oppose it. In areas still drying out from Hurricane Irene and repairing the damage from the East Coast earthquake that preceded it, Democrats think the suggestion that federal aid should be used as another budget cut bargaining chip will not sit well with voters.

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Nan Hayworth

GOP Freshman Under Fire For Demanding Offsets For Disaster Relief In Her Own District

Brian Beutler | September 1, 2011, 9:39AM

Rep. Nan Hayworth (R-NY)

This isn't the sort of headline and lead paragraph you want to read in the local paper if you're a freshman House member in a marginal district: "Hayworth seeking to withhold disaster money unless it is offset by budget cuts: Only days after a record-setting storm destroyed her district, Rep. Nan Hayworth and her House colleagues threatened to withhold disaster money if lawmakers don't cut additional spending from the federal budget."

But that's exactly what the New York freshman woke up to this morning after saying she would only vote to replenish FEMA's disaster relief fund if the money is offset with spending cuts elsewhere in the budget, according to the paper. Her constituents, and officials in her district, don't want to hear about conditions -- even Republicans.

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FEMA

Ex-FEMA Official On The Risks Of Offsetting Disaster Aid

Brian Beutler | September 1, 2011, 6:15AM

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA)

Faced with growing criticism Tuesday, including from members of his own party, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) appeared to soften, slightly, his general view that federal disaster relief should be offset with equal or greater budget cuts.

He told the Richmond Times-Dispatch, that relief funds would not get bogged down in the sort of protracted budget fight that has dominated Congressional politics all year. His spokesman Brad Dayspring, in a statement to several reporters, echoed this. "People and families affected by these disasters will certainly get what they need from their federal government," he said. "The goal should be to find ways to pay for what is needed or to find offsets whenever possible, that is the responsible thing to do. Clearly when disasters and emergencies happen, people expect their government to treat them as national priorities and respond properly. People also expect their government to spend their dollars wisely, and to make efforts to prioritize and save when possible."

That will come as welcome news to victims and FEMA alike, if it turns out that they need Congress to pass emergency legislation in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene.

Mark Merritt, a former senior FEMA official in the Clinton administration said these kinds of budget impasses can be a big drag in a disaster management situation.

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