Delay in aid to Sandy victims was a cruel betrayal

on January 04, 2013 at 2:55 PM, updated January 04, 2013 at 2:59 PM

            When disaster strikes, Americans come together to support one another.

    But Congress and U.S. House Speaker John Boehner are playing party politics with people’s lives and dividing our country by delaying $60.4 billion in emergency relief to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

    After Hurricane Katrina and the 1989 San Francisco Earthquake, Congress appropriated emergency funds within 10 days. But nearly 70 days have passed since Sandy devastated our region, and now a new session of Congress must once again bring the funding package to a vote in both congressional chambers.

    When natural disasters have devastated other regions of our country, our congressional delegation has never hesitated to support emergency disaster relief. The human and economic impact of Sandy is so severe and evident, it’s impossible to understand why the House would go into recess before taking action to assist our region.

    I urge Speaker Boehner to appropriate needed money to our area without further delay, and to visit to impacted areas from Staten Island to Brooklyn to Queens to Manhattan and explain to those who lost family members, loved ones, and homes why he pulled the vote and why it’s taken so long to get those impacted money.
           [The writer is the speaker of the New York City Council.]