NEW YORK/WASHINGTON President Barack Obama asked Congress on Friday to approve a $60.4 billion aid package to help East Coast states rebuild after Superstorm Sandy, well short of their initial requests.
Officials from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, which were hit hard by the storm, had said they needed at least a combined $82 billion to make emergency repairs and upgrade infrastructure to prevent similar damage from future storms.
Senators from New York and New Jersey said they expect Obama will seek more aid as the extent of Sandys damage becomes clearer.
This supplemental is a very good start, and while $60 billion doesnt cover all of New York and New Jerseys needs, it covers a large percentage, said the Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez of New Jersey.
Just as important, there is a great deal of flexibility that better allows us to help homeowners, small businesses, hospitals, beach communities, and localities rebuild, repair and protect themselves, they added.
The storm made landfall in New Jersey on Oct. 29.
The blockbuster disaster funding request, on a scale not seen since Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast in 2005, could complicate already tense negotiations between the White House and Congress on a deficit reduction deal.
Lawmakers are trying to avert the year-end fiscal cliff of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that amount to a total of $600 billion.
We have the request and will review it, said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner. He did not elaborate.
The request allows for investments in infrastructure projects aimed at better protecting the New York-New Jersey coastal region from future storms.
Lawmakers also said it makes use of Community Development Block Grants, a mechanism that gives local jurisdiction a lot of flexibility to provide aid and rebuild quickly.
Some Republican lawmakers have said they will demand spending cuts elsewhere in the federal budget to offset the cost of some projects funded by the aid package.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, who will oversee the initial review of the request, said Congress has a responsibility to help the region recover.
It is also our responsibility during these tight-budget times to make sure that the victims of this storm are getting the most of every single recovery dollar, and to ensure that disaster funds are timed and targeted in the most efficient and appropriate manner, the Republican lawmaker said in a statement.
Menendez said on Thursday that he expects that Congress will be able to approve the spending request before the end of the year.
Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Craig Fugate told lawmakers this week that the FEMA disaster relief fund was down to less than $5 billion, which would run out by early spring at the current pace of disbursements.
We need a full recovery package to be voted on in this session of Congress, said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in a statement. Any delay will impede our recovery.
