Northeast Republicans Enraged by Inaction on Storm Relief

In a remarkable open display of rage, Republican representatives from New York and New Jersey publicly accused their House leadership of betrayal and hypocrisy for deciding at the last minute to cancel a vote in the 112th Congress on emergency relief for the victims of Hurricane Sandy.

Representative Peter T. King of Long Island said the decision by his party's leaders was “disgraceful” and “immoral,” and he suggested that New Yorkers who contribute to the National Republican Congressional Committee should “have their head examined.”

“I can't imagine that type of indifference, that type of disregard, that cavalier attitude toward any other part of the country,” Mr. King said on the floor of the House for the official Congressional record. “These people have no problem finding New York when it comes to raising money . It's only when it comes to allocating money” that they declare the region undeserving.

Republicans balked at putting a, $60.4 billion Sandy relief package that has been passed by the Senate to a vote before the 112th Congress disbands at noon Thursday. Leaders assured lawmakers they could start afresh when the 113th Congress convenes the same day, but under Congressional rules, no work from the last Congress can continue in the next. Mr. King made note that virtually nothing will be done until after President Obama's Jan. 20 Inauguration at the earliest.

Representative Michael G. Grimm, a Republican whose Staten Island district was devastated by Hurricane Sandy, delivered an emotional address to the House, reluctantly agreeing with Representative Jerrold Nadler, the liberal Democrat who had preceded him. Mr. Nadler had called the behavior on the storm the “most disgraceful act” he had seen in his 20 years in the House.

Apologizing to his constituents for his own party's actions, Mr. Grimm said, “There was a betrayal. There was an error in judgment that is going to cost I think the trust of the American people, not for me individually, not even for members as individuals, but for this body as we move forward.”

Representative Frank A. LoBiondo, Republican of New Jersey, followed with his own denunciation, accusing the House of treating the Northeast differently than Congress treated the victims of Hurricane Katrina in the Republican-rich states on the Gulf of Mexico.

“Yes, anger, frustration, this is all rolled into this,” he said.