Which Texas Congressmen Voted Again Hurricane Sandy Relief
The fine art of compromise, otherwise known as you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours, has all but disappeared from the halls of Congress in recent years. And that may put more than 20 members of the Texas congressional delegation in a bind when relief for the victims of Hurricane Harvey comes up for a vote.
The representatives, and Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, all voted against a $l.5-billion relief package for victims of 2012's Superstorm Sandy when it came before them in January 2013. (The measure passed anyhow.) Although the shape and size of a relief package for victims of Harvey won't emerge for at least several months, it's clear that a big one volition exist needed. Impairment estimates from the storm still pummeling the Gulf Coast around Houston have reached $40 billion, and are likely to rising.
Texas is almost certain to pose a bleed on federal emergency resources for the indefinite future. "FEMA is going to exist there for years," Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Bureau, said Lord's day on CNN.
I won't abandon Texas the way Ted Cruz did New York.
Rep. Peter King, R-Northward.Y.
Texas lawmakers haven't still been asked how they will vote on the inevitable packet. But on Friday, even before Harvey's landfall, Cruz and Cornyn sent a letter of the alphabet to President Trump asking him for a major disaster declaration. Trump issued the declaration that evening.
Lawmakers and others from the New York-New Jersey region that sustained the heaviest harm from Sandy, moreover, take signaled that they'll be on hypocrite watch when it comes time to vote on Harvey help. "ane bad plow doesn't deserve another," Republican Rep. Peter King of New York wrote in a tweet directed at Cruz. In a 2nd tweet he pledged, "I won't abandon Texas the way Ted Cruz did New York."
Sources: FEMA, Mapzen, OpenStreetMap, population image Copyright, 2013, Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia (Dustin A. Cable, creator)
(Ally Levine / @latimesgraphics)
On Saturday, the New York Daily News was quick to underscore the irony in Cruz and Cornyn scurrying to secure emergency assist for their domicile country after voting against Sandy relief. "The devastation of Hurricane Harvey has two-faced Texas politicians looking for the same sort of relief funding they flatly opposed five years ago," the newspaper reported.
Most of the lawmakers who commented on the 2013 Sandy appropriation couched their opposition in terms of fiscal responsibleness. The issue, they said, was that the Sandy bill had been larded downwards with non-Sandy and not-emergency spending. "Emergency relief for the families who are suffering from this natural disaster should not exist used as a Christmas tree for billions in unrelated spending," Cruz said then.
Others demanded that every dollar spent on Sandy relief be counterbalanced past a dollar cut somewhere else in the federal upkeep. As I wrote concluding year, when Louisiana congressmen who voted against Sandy were tasked with securing relief for victims of Hurricane Matthew, this position elevated the ideology of the balanced budget to an article of faith. Notably, the lawmakers insisting on a i-for-one trade-off against Sandy assistance were never specific almost where the cuts should come up from.
The biggest factor influencing the Sandy vote, nevertheless, may have been the disappearance of bipartisan comity from the halls of Congress. The process may be denigrated equally "logrolling," only the idea that every legislator is going to demand something from his or her colleagues at ane point or another is ingrained in history. When a Mississippi flood displaced 600,000 residents of the Delta in 1927, for example, Rep. Phil Swing personally led a congressional tour of the region. Swing represented California, i,800 miles abroad, so what was he upward to? Elementary, he was preparing the basis for a flood control project for his abode commune, the Imperial Valley. He sponsored the Delta restoration bill and got his wish — congressional funding for what nosotros know today as Hoover Dam. Both regions reaped decades of benefits.
The breakdown of partisan and regional cooperation has been compounded by the substitution of ideology for foresight. That's a particular danger today, when the possibility — nay, probability — of future destruction from climate change, not to mention other natural occurrences, is staring the states in the face up. As Rep. Frank LoBiondo, (R-North.J.), called to GOP holdouts after their 2013 vote against Sandy relief: "Florida, practiced luck with no more hurricanes. California, congratulations, did you get rid of the Andreas fault? The Mississippi's in a drought. Do you think y'all're non going to have a inundation again? Who are y'all going to come up to when you accept these things?"
Nosotros'll know before long enough. The bills for Harvey will be coming due very, very soon.
Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see his Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com.
Render to Michael Hiltzik'due south blog.
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Source: https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-harvey-aid-sandy-vote-20170828-story.html
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