Club for Growth key-votes Sandy bill amendment

The conservative Club for Growth announced Friday that it will punish members who fail to vote for a key Hurricane Sandy amendment coming to the Senate floor on Monday.

A $50 billion Sandy aid package will be voted on, and the only amendment will be offered by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah).

The Lee amendment would offset the entire cost of the bill with spending cuts. It applies an 0.5 percent trim to spending every year through 2021.

The Club for Growth will include the vote in its annual scorecard.

“As we have said before about disaster relief, Congress should offset disaster relief with spending cuts elsewhere. With $16.4 trillion in debt, it's the very least Congress can do to start acting in a fiscally responsible manner,” the group says in a press release.

The House passed the Hurricane Sandy relief bill on Jan. 15 with only 49 House Republican votes. 

Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) had offered an amendment to offset $17 billion of that aid through across-the-board cuts, but his amendment only got 157 Republican “yes” votes.

The Lee amendment is not expected to get the Democratic support it would need to pass, while the overall Sandy bill is expected to have enough votes.

For years, disaster spending has been treated as an emergency not requiring spending offsets. In the past, appropriators have loaded disaster bills up with pet projects that otherwise could not get funding. House GOP appropriators say the current bill is clean, however.

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