Texas Republicans flip-flop on hurricane relief after Harvey

Nothing is above politics, not even a deadly hurricane flooding a major American city.

That was one of the lessons in 2013 in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, which caused over $70 billion worth of damage, mostly in New York City and New Jersey, and killed 72 people. Politicians uniformly and very publicly mourned the loss of life and sent thoughts and prayers. But when it came to sending money in the form of a $51 billion aid package, 216 Republicans in both chambers of Congress balked at the cost.

Twenty-three of those Republicans are from Texas, where Hurricane Harvey has already inflicted tens of billions of dollars in damage and killed 15 and counting this week. The storm broke the rainfall record for the U.S. mainland on Tuesday with over 50 inches of rain. And it’s still raining.

And with their home state affected, many of those same Republicans are singing a different tune on disaster relief now that Harvey’s damage is expected to exceed $30 billion.

No formal relief plan has been submitted to Congress, but already the state’s two senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, are not driving nearly so hard a bargain. They have not said if they will require spending cuts to pay for the Harvey relief, and they’re arguing that they only voted against the Sandy relief in 2013 because there was too much non-Sandy spending in the bill and not because there weren’t offsetting cuts.

Cruz insisted this week that “two-thirds” of the past package included spending unrelated to Sandy. That’s not true. The majority of the bill’s money was directed toward Sandy reconstruction. Still, the bill also included funds for previously declared disasters and gave $17 billion to Community Development Block Grants that could be awarded to disaster events other than Sandy.

This sudden openness to federal relief money has angered Democrats and Republicans alike.

“Ted Cruz & Texas cohorts voted vs NY/NJ aid after Sandy but I’ll vote 4 Harvey aid. NY wont abandon Texas. 1 bad turn doesnt deserve another,” tweeted Republican Peter King of New York.

“The congressional members in Texas are hypocrites,” Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey told reporters Monday. “Even though I’m sure there’s going to be some temptation by New Jersey House members in particular to drag their feet a little bit based upon what these folks in Texas did to us during Sandy, I’m going to be urging all our members to rise above that and provide the aid as quickly as possible.”

Many New York and New Jersey members of Congress have been nursing a grudge for years against those who voted against the Sandy bill, with some even keeping a list of names called “the Comeuppance Caucus,” the Texas Tribune reported.

Despite the resentment, it appears likely that a Harvey relief bill will pass Congress this fall and will ultimately be signed by President Donald Trump. Vice President Mike Pence told a Houston radio station on Monday that “we’re confident the Congress of the United States is going to be there to provide the resources necessary” to rebuild Southeast Texas.

It was a striking comment coming from Pence. In 2005 following Hurricane Katrina — which caused over $100 billion in damage — then Congressman Mike Pence opposed a relief bill unless it came with cuts to Medicare and Social Security, cuts he likely knew would sink the bill because Congress hates cutting entitlements. “Congress must insure that a catastrophe of nature will not be a catastrophe of debt for our children and grandchildren,” he said on the House floor.

How the winds shift.