Latest Reports

GOP Fight Looms Over Oklahoma Aid

Moderate House Republicans such as Rep. Peter T. King are ready for another intraparty fight over whether emergency disaster aid should be offset, after a tornado ravaged parts of Oklahoma on Monday.

The New York Republican said that if central Oklahoma needs supplemental aid, Congress should grant it immediately without talk of offsetting the spending elsewhere.

“I think they should get every penny they need. I’ve been through this. We can do the political games later on, the important thing is to get them the aid as quickly as they need it and not to make a political issue out of it,” King said Tuesday.

King was one of the most vocal proponents of bringing federal aid to New York after Superstorm Sandy battered the coasts of his state and neighboring New Jersey late last year.

Though the White House said Tuesday that there is enough Federal Emergency Management Agency money to deal with the immediate aftermath of the tornadoes, King said that may not turn out to be the case in the long term.

He noted that the Disaster Relief Fund only helps pay for the immediate recovery, while the state could be in need of long-term financial assistance in what could be a protracted cleanup effort.

“I don’t see how they get by without additional money,” he said. “There should be enough for the FEMA money, but that’s only part of it. … You have to get a supplemental appropriation … that gives the local officials leeway.”

King’s comments came after Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., told CQ Roll Call he would stick by his mantra that disaster aid should be offset, despite the damage in his home state.

Others in the delegation may follow Coburn’s lead. Sheryl Kaufman, a spokeswoman for Rep. Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla., said that supplemental aid is a “moot point” because the FEMA fund has more money than the entire cleanup effort cost when a large tornado hit Oklahoma in 1999. As to the long-term cleanup, she said people have insurance and charities can help fund the efforts, as well.

Other Republicans who have in the past insisted that aid be offset by spending cuts elsewhere in the budget remained mum on Tuesday, as the scope of the destruction, and the federal assistance needed, was not yet known.

Reps. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Scott Garrett, R-N.J., both said they would wait to see what becomes necessary.

(for more, please visit our partners at Roll Call)

What's the Do-Nothing Congress Up To?

Lawmakers will spend the coming week performing yet another chapter of Groundhog Day, returning to debates that generated ample heat but yielded no conclusion during the election year.

The Senate will plow through the farm bill one more time. The House will vote again to insist on construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline and to prevent student loans rates from doubling.

Very little of that will generate headlines, if for no other reason than the attention of Congress at the moment is all about training its investigative powers on the Obama administration controversies.

Then, at week’s end, the Capitol will go dark, with the entire community scattering for a long Memorial Day weekend of cookouts and commencements.

And when the lights go back on, one recess week later, it will signal the start of the second half of the scheduled legislative year. This is a marker that gives new meaning to the idea that time flies when not much of anything is going on.

This is the 16th week of 2013 when at least one chamber of Congress has been in session. After the recess, that many weeks of legislating remain before Veterans Day in November. The Senate has no announced plans to be around beyond then, although if past practice is a guide, it will keep churning away as long as the House, which has penciled in the second Friday in December as the year’s last getaway day. (It’s been a decade since either chamber closed up shop before Thanksgiving in an off year.)

Still, the notion that the first session of the 113th Congress is at halftime makes intuitive sense to many corporate lobbyists, K Street rainmakers, think tank analysts, nonprofit advocates and political-intelligence purveyors — all of whom have to pace themselves to stay on top of things until the last roll is called.

The first year of a president’s term traditionally provides a guarantee of over-employment for those folks because the president is spending down his political capital before its expiration date and lawmakers are as far away from facing voters as they’ll ever be. No other year in the four-year cycle comes close.

(for more please visit our friends at Roll Call)

Tornado Update: President's Call w/Okla. Gov.

(from the White House tonight)

This evening the President spoke with Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin to express his concern for those who have been affected by the severe weather beginning last night and continuing today. While information is still coming in, the President made clear that his Administration, through FEMA, stands ready to provide all available assistance as the Governor’s team responds to the storm and that he has directed his team to ensure that they are providing available resources as the response unfolds. FEMA has deployed an Incident Management Assistance Team to the state emergency operations center in Oklahoma City to support state and local officials on the ground and additional personnel and resources stand ready to be dispatched as necessary. The President told Governor Fallin that the people of Oklahoma are in his and the First Lady’s thoughts and prayers and, while his team will continue to keep him updated, he urged her to be in touch directly if there were additional resources the Administration could provide.