Louisiana Republicans: This isn’t like Sandy

Louisiana lawmakers are defending their 2013 votes against aid for Hurricane Sandy relief — even as they request billions of dollars to help their state recover from last month’s floods. 

GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy and Republican Reps. John Fleming and Steve Scalise — all of whom voted against the Sandy bill in 2013 — are now asking for more than $2 billion for flood aid for Baton Rouge and other cities in their state. 

{mosads}Fleming and Cassidy say they voted against the $50 billion Sandy bill ­because it included $33 billion for programs unrelated to the storm damage. They say the Louisiana request has no such extraneous spending. 

Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) formally asked Washington this week to provide up to $2.8 billion in emergency aid after the August floods, which destroyed more than 100,000 homes and killed 13. 

The White House mostly supports the effort and formally submitted a request Tuesday for $2.6 billion in emergency spending for the state.

The proposal also has the approval of the congressional delegation, which wrote a letter to the president asking him to remember the state during spending battles between now and the end of the fiscal year, on Sept. 30. 

The question now is whether Congress will do anything with the request and if members detect any hypocrisy in funding disaster relief for a state where most members have voted against it in the past. 

“I guess there is a certain irony in it, or poetic justice or something, but no, it wouldn’t stop me at all for voting for it,” Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) said. 

King aggressively criticized members for delaying votes on the Sandy aid package in 2013, and he said Wednesday that the fight for funds to assist his home state “caused me to change my feelings toward some people.”

But aid for Louisiana, he said, “absolutely … has to be done. No one can even think of voting against it for any political reason.”

Fleming, Scalise and Cassidy, then a House member, all voted for a $17 billion lower chamber version of the Sandy bill, complaining that the Democrat-led Senate added unnecessary funding.

“All Louisiana’s asking for is direct relief for damage,” Fleming said of his state’s aid request. “That’s what I was willing to vote for in Sandy, and that’s what I’m going to vote for on this. And that’s all we’re requesting. We’re not asking for wasteful spending on projects unrelated to flooding.”

Cassidy made a similar argument.

“I voted against that final package, you’re right,” he said. “But I voted for that $17 billion package that was truly recognized as Sandy aid.”

The state’s other representatives either voted for the Sandy bill or were not in Congress at the time.

Hurricane Sandy caused more than $70 billion of damage in New York and New Jersey, and the $51 billion aid package appropriated billions for community block grants, restoring utilities, rebuilding homes, repairing transit systems and coastal reconstruction.  

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), another outspoken critic of lawmakers who voted against the Sandy aid, said he warned his colleagues back then that they might someday need disaster aid themselves.

“I called out those early on to say that you have to think about that phrase, ‘There but for the grace of God go I,’ and you’re going to need somebody some day,” Menendez said. “I think they’re going to have to come to some type of reckoning about why this is good in one case and not good in another.”

Rep. Cedric Richmond, Louisiana’s lone Democrat in Congress, said he doesn’t think his party will be uneasy about backing the emergency funding for his state.

“While we did have three that did not vote for [Sandy aid], I came down to the floor and argued for it because it was important,” he said. “I think that I have great goodwill among members of my side, so I think as long as we’re pushing for a bill that is not insensitive to other needs of other communities, I think we’re OK.”

Fleming and Cassidy said that because their request is reasonable and doesn’t contain unneeded funding, it should pass easily.

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), who voted for the Sandy bill, told reporters that his colleagues’ past votes shouldn’t doom this aid package.

“I think when there is a disaster, Congress, administrations, whoever they are, come together and respond in a responsible way,” he said shortly after the floods, according to the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report. “I was involved in the Sandy package and built good relationships based on that, so I don’t foresee that difficulty.” 

King said each congressional fight over disaster aid should serve as a warning for all members.

“I would just hope that anyone would look at this and remember the next time there is a natural disaster somewhere to step up and do what has to be done,” King said.