House Speaker John Boehner received heavy criticism after delaying a vote on the Hurricane Sandy relief bill Tuesday. Congressman Frank Pallone (D-6th Dist.) told NJ Today Managing Editor Mike Schneider that he believes the vote should have taken place earlier to help the local economies impacted by the storm recover quickly.
Pallone said he believes the measure would have passed had a vote been taken. “If we had [voted on] this two or three days ago as a $60 billion package that the Senate had approved, we would have been able to pass it. This is really just being held up because the Republican leadership refuses to put the bill up,” he said.
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According to Pallone, some members of the Republican Party don’t want to vote for large spending bills so Boehner decided to delay the vote and divide the bill into separate packages. “Some of them aren’t going to vote for the bill at all and don’t want it even to be posted. So there’s that element,” he said. “Then there’s the others that say, ‘Well maybe I can do it if you divide it up over a series of weeks so nobody notices.’ But it’s just disgraceful.”
Pallone said the delay impacts the economy, particularly at the Jersey Shore. “The consequences for the economy are dire because we need to be open again for business on Memorial Day and this is the money that people would be using to rebuild their houses and their businesses and fixing up the streets,” he said. “It’s jobs and the economy that’s all suffering as a result.”
While some Republicans are publicly saying the issue has been resolved with votes scheduled for the remainder of the aid bill in the future, Pallone said he’s a bit skeptical of Boehner’s promises since he previously agreed to call for a vote Tuesday and did not.
“The fact that we now have to wait a few more weeks or another month is just not fair. And so I still believe this will come up in the next few weeks or in the next month and we’ll eventually get it passed — at least I hope so,” Pallone said. “But the delay is totally inappropriate and it’s not fair to the residents who need help or to the towns that want to rebuild.”