Unified House OKs storm relief
Published: October 10, 2004
The House yesterday unanimously approved $14.5 billion for hurricane victims and struggling farmers as Congress moved a step closer to showering money on Florida and other pivotal states in the upcoming elections.
After weeks of delay over everything from budget cuts to milk subsidies, House-Senate bargainers added the natural-disaster aid to a $10 billion military-construction measure. With both chambers holding rare weekend sessions to clear bills before Election Day on Nov. 2, the House passed the measure 374-0. Senate passage is possible as early as today.
“No section of Florida was spared,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman C.W. Bill Young, Florida Republican, said of the four hurricanes that battered his state and the South this summer. “It’s difficult for me to express gratitude as effectively as I should.”
The legislation underscored the heightened political sensitivities of the run-up to next month’s voting.
Both parties were eager to quickly ship aid to vote-rich Florida. President Bush never proposed aid for drought, floods and other agriculture emergencies, but the White House and members of both parties were itching to send assistance to Midwestern states that are election battlegrounds.
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