The Week Just Past:  Rodney Advances Sandy Aid for New Jersey

Politico Series on Hurricane Sandy Assistance

Administration to Miss Budget Deadline

French Operations in Africa Require Caution by USA

The Week Just Past:  Rodney Advances Sandy Aid for New Jersey

“New Jersey and the Northeast won a major victory this week as the House passed my legislation to provide critically-needed funding through the Hurricane Sandy Emergency Relief Appropriations bill. 

“When combined with another $17 billion measure offered by Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (KY), my amendment brings the Sandy emergency assistance to approximately $50 billion.  An initial $9.7 billion was approved to re-fund the National Flood Insurance Program more than a week ago.

“For reasons beyond our control, the House got a late start on providing assistance to the storm-ravaged states of New Jersey, New York and others in the Northeast.  But Tuesday’s vote provides a strong step toward getting this vital funding flowing to those who so desperately need it – New Jerseyans who had their houses badly damaged or destroyed, who have no place to call home, may still lack power, or whose towns are still under emergency declarations. 

“I hope the Senate will act quickly on our package of assistance.  It’s clear that 81 days after Sandy devastated New Jersey, our people are hurting and further delay will only lead to more misery, more uncertainty, more unemployment and put our region’s long-term recovery at risk.”

Rodney Frelinghuysen

Recommended Reading: The Thursday Bergen Record editorial “The GOP Finally Steps Up.”

Recommended Reading: Politico has been posting and publishing a series of articles on the Sandy Recovery effort, spearheaded in the House by Rodney.  Here are some of the stories they’ve posted over the last few weeks:

Chris Christie, Rodney Frelinghuysen team up on Sandy aid

Hill Friction Slows Sandy Recovery

House GOP Opens a Path for Sandy Assistance

House Passes Sandy Aid Bill

Sandy Lesson: Don’t mess with New Jersey

Administration to Miss Budget Deadline

Acting Budget Director Jeff Zients has informed House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (WI) that the budget will not be delivered by Februrary 4, as required by law. Zients blamed the delay on the late passage of the "fiscal cliff" deal, and wrote in a letter that the administration is “working diligently on our budget request.”

Under the law, President Obama must submit a budget by the first Monday in February, but he has met the deadline only once. The annual budget submission is supposed to start a congressional budgeting process, but that has also broken down. The Senate last passed a budget resolution in 2009.

Recommended Reading:  Tuesday editorial in the Wall Street Journal, “The Next Tax Increase: The new tax hike is barely law and Obama already wants more.”

French Operations in Africa Require Caution by USA

The surprise French assault in Mali in North Africa, last Friday, to blunt Islamists’ insurgents advance against the government set off a cascading series of events which threaten to widen the violence in an impoverished region and drag Western governments, including the United States, deeper into combating an insurgency.

General Carter Ham, the commander of the Department of Defense’s Africa Command, addressed the issue this way: “The real question is now what?”

“The answer to that question has to be ‘caution,'” said Rodney, a senior member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and the Committee’s liaison to the House Intelligence Committee.  “The Obama administration must proceed with extreme care and keep Congress informed every step of the way.”