The Slatest

GOP’s Peter King Unloads On Own Party After It Punts on Sandy Aid Package

Rep. Peter King unloaded on his GOP leaders today after they failed to take up an aid package for areas hit by Superstorm Sandy

Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images.

The House packed up last night after signing off on the Senate’s fiscal-cliff deal but before they held a vote on an emergency supplemental disaster aid package for those areas hit the hardest by Superstorm Sandy. That left New York lawmakers on both sides of the aisle fuming, but perhaps none more so than Republican Rep. Peter King.

“These Republicans have no problem finding New York when they’re out raising millions of dollars,” King said this morning during a Fox News interview. “They’re in New York all the time filling their pockets with money from New Yorkers. I’m saying right now, anyone from New York or New Jersey who contributes one penny to Congressional Republicans is out of their minds. Because what they did last night was put a knife in the back of New Yorkers and New Jerseyans. It was an absolute disgrace.”

The Senate approved its own $60-billion Sandy aide package on Friday. The House was expected to hold a vote on its version of the bill (which is a little less than half the size of the upper chamber’s) last night but GOP leaders never brought it up for a vote. Until they do, King suggested he’ll do his best to cause as many headaches for his own party’s leaders as he can. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m on my own,” he said. “They’re going to have to go a long way to get my vote on anything.”

If the House doesn’t pass an aid package before the next Congress is seated tomorrow, lawmakers would have to start largely from scratch on the bill, something that would likely mean a lengthy delay before New York, New Jersey and other areas see the federal aid they want. [Weigel has more on why some in the GOP are opposed to the deal here.]