Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Maine’s GOP senators were among eight Republicans who broke from their party Tuesday to clear the way for providing more federal disaster aid in the wake of damage from storms such as Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee.
Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe and a half dozen other Republicans mainly from storm-affected states joined Democrats in approving a procedural motion 61-38 to allow for a final vote. Sixty votes were needed.
Senate Democrats want to attach the $6.9 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency – including $500 million the Obama administration says FEMA needs to keep its disaster relief fund going through the end of the 2011 fiscal year that ends Sept. 30 – to an unrelated piece of legislation restricting imports to Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.
President Obama Tuesday night signed an Irene-related disaster declaration for three Maine counties - Franklin, Oxford and York – that paves the way for federal aid for those areas.
Republicans have said they want to provide disaster relief, but have raised questions about how the relief will be offset to keep from raising the deficit. But among the GOP senators voting for the aid was ultra-conservative Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, whose state was hard hit by damage from both Irene and Lee.
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Kevin Miller is Washington bureau chief for the Portland Press Herald and MaineToday Media. He has worked as a journalist in Maine for 6 ½ years, covering the environment, politics and the State House. Before arriving in Maine, he wrote about politics, government and education for newspapers in Virginia and Maryland.
Kevin can be reached at 317-6256 or kmiller@mainetoday.com
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