House to vote on Hurricane Sandy bill after all
Under pressure from Republican members of the House from New York and New Jersey, House Speaker John Boehner promised that a vote for a bill to provide $60.4 billion in federal aid to states hit by Hurricane Sandy would indeed take place, according to one of those members, U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm (R-Bay Ridge-Dyker Heights-Staten Island).
Boehner had pulled a Sandy relief bill off the House floor late at night on Jan. 1, effectively killing any chance that the proposed legislation would come up for a vote before the session ended. The issue would have to be taken up when the new congress convened.
Grimm said he attended a closed-door meeting with Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and other GOP congress members on Jan. 2 and that the speaker promised that two votes to authorize the funding would take place.
Boehner agreed to take a vote on Jan. 4 on $9 billion bill to replenish the National Flood Insurance Program. A vote on the remaining $51 billion in the aid package will take place on January 15, the first day of legislative business in the new congress, Grimm said.