U.S. Government Shutdown Looms Again

The bill provided only a little more than half as much disaster relief funding as a similar bill passed last week by the Senate with backing from 10 Republicans, and offset much of that with spending cuts to a loan program to create energy-efficient cars that Democrats said had already created 40,000 jobs and could bring more.

Rep. Robert B. Aderholt, R-Ala., who was an architect of the bill, was quoted saying, “While Congress has an undeniable obligation to thoroughly address our nation’s disaster relief needs, we can no longer afford to simply throw money at calamities and then ask the hard questions later.”

Reuters reported that Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said disaster relief funding should be considered an emergency and not be offset. She was quoted saying, “There are many people in many states who are wondering how in the world Congress could spend $1.3 trillion on wars and rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan without one offset [while] we’re having difficulty getting a vote on $6.9 billion for Americans rebuilding their own farms, homes, bridges and communities.”