Posted by Leonard Steinberg on January 16th, 2013

A measure providing $51 billion for relief and recovery from Hurricane Sandy was approved by a bipartisan majority in the House last night, three weeks after Northeast Republicans excoriated the chamber’s GOP leaders for failing to vote on storm aid before the end of the last Congress. A Tea Party amendment to the relief package requiring across-the-board cuts to defense and domestic programs to pay for $17 billion of storm aid was supported by a majority of Republicans, but was defeated 258-162 with a combination of GOP and Democratic votes.

The full $51 billion relief bill passed the House 241-180, with 179 Republicans opposed. The relief measure provides billions of dollars to repair flood-damaged transit systems in New York and New Jersey, and $5.4 billion for the FEMA Relief Fund, which provides cash grants directly to storm victims. Tens of billions of dollars are also allocated for long-term flood control and recovery projects……so will the government take our hard earned tax dollars and blow it on their usual stupidity or will these dollars actually be used to develop systems that truly are effective in the event of another storm?

Or should we anticipate that every future storm of the magnitude of SANDY will cost us $ 50 billion+, when we all know that bold, one-time preventative measures would probably cost less?