House skirmishes over additional Hurricane Sandy aid

As the House returns to work this week, there will be a legislative skirmish over a second disaster aid bill for victims of Hurricane Sandy, as some Republicans question whether all of the spending is actually needed.

Already dozens of amendments have been filed to the base Republican bill sponsored by the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY), and to a series of changes to that measure by Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ), who chairs the Energy and Water Subcommittee of the Appropriations panel.

The Rogers bill, H.R. 152, would add $17 billion in disaster aid to almost $10 billion already approved by the House earlier this month. This is a slimmed down Republican plan that GOP backers say has been scrubbed of legislative extras.

But others hope to deliver more Sandy relief money with the Frelinghuysen Amendment, which would add $33 billion to that $17 billion, raising the total of overall aid to $60 billion, which is what the Senate approved late in December; the plan includes extra money for a host of federal government agencies.

Here are the basics of the Rogers plan for $17 billion in Hurricane Sandy aid:

* $5.4 billion for the FEMA disaster relief fund
* $5.4 billion for transit aid to New York & New Jersey
* $3.9 billion to repair damage to public hospitals, local roads & utilities and small businesses
* $1.35 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers to make repairs to Sandy damage
* $287 million for National Park repairs from Sandy damage
* $100 million for public health, social service needs from Sandy
* $235 million to repair damage to the Manhattan VA hospital
* $161 million in small business disaster loans
* $24.2 million for repairs to various National Guard facilities
* $6 million to replenish stocks at food banks and soup kitches in NY/NJ

The Frelinghuysen plan would add $33 billion in disaster relief spending to the Rogers bill; in some areas it bolsters aid money in the Sandy bill, in other areas it adds new funding for a variety of U.S. Government departments and agencies (one reason some of the numbers here won't add up to just $33 billion.)

Here are some of the details:

* This plan would add almost $11.5 billion to the FEMA disaster relif fund, more than double the House GOP leadership plan
* There is $10.9 billion for emergency aid to public transportation
* This plan would fund $16 billion in community development runds for the Department of Housing and Urban Development "due to Hurricane Sandy and other eligible events in calendar years 2011, 2012, and 2013" - in other words, this pot of money is not just for the northeast.

* The Frelinghuysen amendment also includes $2.02 billion for emergency federal highway repairs, but the language seems to indicate this money could go to places that were nowhere near Hurricane Sandy:

Last time I checked a map, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa were not in the path of Hurricane Sandy.

* This amendment also includes $300 million in additional FEMA disaster loans
* $218,000,000 for emergency farm conservation activities
* $290,000,000 for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Admnistration, which would be spent in the following manner:
(1) $50,000,000 for mapping, charting, geodesy services and marine debris surveys for coastal States impacted by Hurricane Sandy;
(2) $7,000,000 to repair and replace ocean observing and coastal monitoring assets damaged by Hurricane Sandy;
(3) $3,000,000 to provide technical assistance to support State assessments of coastal impacts of Hurricane Sandy;
(4) $150,000,000 for Regional Ocean Partnership grants to coastal States impacted by Hurricane Sandy;
(5) $25,000,000 to improve weather forecasting and hurricane intensity forecasting capabilities, to include data assimilation from ocean observing platforms and satellites;
(6) $50,000,000 for laboratories and cooperative institutes research activities associated with sustained observations weather research programs, and ocean and coastal research; and
(7) $5,000,000 for necessary expenses related to fishery disasters resulting from impacts of Hurricane Sandy, and as declared by the Secretary of Commerce in calendar year 2012:

* NOAA would also receive $186 million for "Procurement, Acquisition and Construction" as follows:
(1) $9,000,000 to repair National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) facilities damaged by Hurricane Sandy;
(2) $44,500,000 for repairs and upgrades to NOAA hurricane reconnaissance aircraft;
(3) $8,500,000 for improvements to weather forecasting equipment and supercomputer infrastructure;
(4) $13,000,000 to accelerate the National Weather Service ground readiness project; and
(5) $111,000,000 for a weather satellite data mitigation gap reserve fund

That "weather satellite data mitigation gap reserve fund" is an interesting line item, because the Congress has been battling with NOAA over the need to launch a new advanced weather satellite for a number of years; this is clearly an effort to insert funding for that.

Other details of the Frelinghuysen plan include:
* The FBI would get $10 million "for necessary expenses related to the consequences of Hurricane Sandy"
* The Drug Enforcement Administration would receive $1 million for such expenses
* The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms would get $230,000 for Sandy costs
* The federal prison system would receive $10 million "for necessary expenses related to the consequences of Hurricane Sandy"

* NASA would receive $15 million for environmental damage from Sandy at certain launch facilities in Virginia and Florida
* The Legal Services Corporation would receive $1 million

The Frelinghuysen Amendment would also direct money to the military, to reimburse the various service branches for "expenses related to the consequences of Hurricane Sandy."
* Army - $5.37 million
* Navy - $40 million
* Air Force - $8.5 million
* Army National Guard - $3.16 million
* Air National Guard - $5.77 million

This amenmdent also has $1.31 million to allow the Army to repair an ammunition plant in Virginia and $24.2 million for what is described as "Defense Working Capital Funds."

The Frelinghuysen plan also adds extra money for the Army Corps of Engineers, basically doubling the House GOP plan to give the Corps $3.46 billion for construction work; also in this plan:
* An extra $50 million for the Army Corps of Engineers to conductd investigations of Sandy-related flood and storm damage
* $821 million for the Army Corps to "dredge federal navigation channels"
* Just over $1 billion for the Corps to deal with "Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies"
* An extra $10 million for Army Corps "expenses"

* The General Services Administration would get $7 million for its "Federal Buildings Fund"
* The Small Buisness Administration would receive $20 million for salaries and expenses
* The internal watchdog at the SBA would get $5 million for fraud work
* $520 million more would be made available in small business disaster loans

* The Department of Homeland Security would receive $1.67 million for "necessary expenses related to the consequences of Hurricane Sandy"
* U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would get $855,000 for such expenses
* The Secret Service would receive $300,000 for Sandy expenses
* The Coast Guard would get $274.2 million for construction on facilities damaged by Sandy
* Homeland Security would also receive $3.2 million (instead of $585,000) for "Research, Development, Acquisition, and Operations", for expenses related to Sandy
* The Fish and Wildlife Service would receive $78 million for construction (instead of $49.8 million)
* The National Park Service Historic Preservation Fund would receive $50 million
* Overall, this plan would give the Park Service $348 million for construction needs (instead of $234 million)
* The Department of Interior would also get $360 million for "Departmental Operations" for expenses related to the "consequences of Hurricane Sandy"

* The EPA would receive $725,000 for "Environmental Programs And Management"
* $2 million would go to EPA's "Hazardous Substance Superfund"
* $5 million for the "Leaking Underground Storage Tank Fund"
* The Frelinghuysen plan includes $600 million for "Clean Water" programs
* The Forest Service would receive $4.4 million for "Capital Improvement and Maintenance" related to Sandy
* The Smithsonian would receive $2 million for roof repairs at several Washington, D.C. museums
* The plan includes $25 million for Department of Labor "training and employment services"
* $800 million for Public Health emergency programs at HHS,br> * The FAA would get $30 million for repairs to facilities and equipment