Top Conservative Group Urges House To Vote Against Hurricane Sandy Relief (Club for Growth)

Business Insider ^ | 01/04/2013 | Brett LoGiurato

[SeekAndFind]

Two days after Republican infighting swirled around House Speaker John Boehner's unexpected decision to pull a Hurricane Sandy relief bill from a potential floor vote, a top conservative group is urging the House of Representatives to vote against the bill.

The House is expected to vote today on the first part of the bill, a $9.7 billion flood insurance bill. Andy Roth, the Club for Growth's vice president of government affairs, said in a statement that the federal government should not be involved in providing flood insurance. Here's the group's full statement:

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The Club for Growth urges all members of the U.S. House to vote "NO" on the bill to expand the National Flood Insurance Program's borrowing authority by $9.7 billion. Consideration of the plan on the House floor is expected to occur today. This vote will be included in the Club for Growth's 2013 congressional scorecard. Congress should not allow the federal government to be involved in the flood insurance industry in the first place, let alone expand the national flood insurance program's authority.

As we have said in a previous key vote alert, the proper way to address disaster relief is to release the funds in installments to make sure the resources are spent wisely. They should also strip out all immaterial line items, and fully offset all expenditures with spending cuts elsewhere. Serious reform would also include a way for the states to take over the responsibility for future disaster relief funding so that accountability is more localized.

Our Congressional Scorecard for the 113th Congress provides a comprehensive rating of how well or how poorly each member of Congress supports pro-growth, free-market policies and will be distributed to our members and to the public.

[cripplecreek]

Seems to me that the only constitutional spending in situations like this is for vital infrastructure.

[impimp]

This is a slush fund.

[fatnotlazy]

Exactly...which is why it will pass.

[Russ]

Of course they will all vote for it. It's an opportunity to spend money with little or no repercussions. The Worthless Class will applaud their compassion and the Ruling Class will pat themselves on the back for being compassionate.

[FoxInSocks]

First of all, it’s a bit late for residents of the Northeast to be getting “insurance.”

Secondly, the government shouldn’t be providing any insurance, flood or health or otherwise.

[lurk]

Disaster relief seems so nice. But it is not constitutional. No true constitutional conservative would support it.

Disaster relief is the job of the family, the church, the neighborhood, the city and the county. The Feds need to stay out of it.

[sakic]

That is a lovely sentiment on paper but it clearly has not worked.