Christie with President Barack Obama visit with homeowners whose houses suffered damage from Hurricane Sandy in Brigantine.

UPDATE: 3pm, Jan. 4, 2013: Following today’s vote by the House of Representatives, Governors Christie (NJ) and Cuomo (NY) released the following joint statement:

“Today’s action by the House was a necessary and critical first step towards delivering aid to the people of New Jersey and New York. While we are pleased with this progress, today was just a down payment and it is now time to go even further and pass the final and more complete, clean disaster aid bill. We are trusting Congress to act accordingly on January 15th and pass the final $51 billion instrumental for long-term rebuilding in order for New Jersey, New York and our people to recover after the severe devastation of Hurricane Sandy.”

UPDATE: 1:55PM, Jan. 2, 2013: President Obama has called for a vote today on the $60 billion superstorm Sandy relief bill that was stalled in the House late Tuesday night.

We have heard from several residents of Atlantic County who were affected by Hurricane Sandy that FEMA has been less than helpful, denying claims after having victims of the natural disaster fill out oodles of paperwork, and that even some insurance companies have yet to respond to initial inquiries/reports due to property damage — which is substantial — from Sandy.

Although the United States Congress — on New Year’s Day 2013 —  steered the country away from the infamous “fiscal cliff” it faced, which is surely a good thing for most Americans, a Hurricane Sandy relief package, proposed by President Obama and passed in the Senate, still has yet to be brought to the floor of the House.

It’s been 66 days, folks. It’s winter. It’s freezing. Some folks can’t even think about going home.

What’s going on federal government?

On Wednesday morning, Jan. 2, 2013, Governors Christie (N.J.) and Cuomo (N.Y.) released a joint statement on Congress’s “Failure to Pass Hurricane Sandy Relief Package.” Both governors’ states were devastated by the historic October storm and its aftermath.

Here is the statement in its entirety:

With all that New York and New Jersey and our millions of residents and small businesses have suffered and endured, this continued inaction and indifference by the House of Representatives is inexcusable. It has now been 66 days since Hurricane Sandy hit and 27 days since President Obama put forth a responsible aid proposal that passed with a bipartisan vote in the Senate while the House has failed to even bring it to the floor. This failure to come to the aid of Americans following a severe and devastating natural disaster is unprecedented. The fact that days continue to go by while people suffer, families are out of their homes, and men and women remain jobless and struggling during these harsh winter months is a dereliction of duty. When American citizens are in need we come to their aid. That tradition was abandoned in the House last night.

The people of our states can no long afford to wait while politicians in Washington play games.

Tags: christie, claims, congress, cuomo, FEMA, fiscal cliff, obama, sandy relief, senate, superstorm

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013 at 12:55 pm and is filed under AC Development, Atlantic City Miscellany, Local News, National News, Politics, Weather. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.