Within days after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005, Congress approved more than $62 billion in emergency relief. It is now more than seven weeks since Hurricane Sandy hit the Northeast, and Congress is just beginning to consider President Obama's request for $60 billion to restore damaged areas of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. As with Katrina, Congress should now move swiftly to provide the full package of relief to help the region recover.
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Some conservative groups have argued that federal aid should be doled out in smaller chunks. Their view is that the Federal Emergency Management Agency still has money for disaster aid and that a new Congressional Budget Office report shows that it would take years for the money to actually be spent. Both arguments miss the mark.
First, many of the most crucial projects would not be financed by FEMA, such as the $700 million needed to repair the Hugh L. Carey Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel in New York City or a $5.3 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers for coastal repairs. In most cases, money has to be appropriated before work even begins. Piecemeal financing simply will not work.
There is powerful bipartisan support for appropriating the money by the end of the year, with Republicans like Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Representatives Michael Grimm of Staten Island and Peter King of Long Island adding their voices to those of the White House and prominent Democrats in the region. Even more to the point for this Congress, a group of more than 100 business executives last week appealed to all four Congressional leaders for immediate relief. Among the companies represented in that appeal were Time Warner, MasterCard Worldwide, Alcoa, BlackRock, Xerox, Macy's, Estée Lauder and American Express.
Their pitch was cogent: "We believe that failure to expeditiously fund storm relief and recovery will severely weaken this region and worsen our nation's overall fiscal condition." If the Northeast suffers, so does the nation — reason enough for Congress to move quickly.
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