A report by global re-insurers claims that 2012 was one of the most expensive years for insurers on record. Natural disasters specifically “large scale weather events” were to blame for the historically high numbers. The world’s second-largest reinsurer said yesterday that natural catastrophes and man-made disasters cost the insurance industry $77 billion in 2012, the [...]

After failing to get it done in the last Congress, the House has passed the Sandy Relief bill: The House approved a $50 billion Sandy relief bill Tuesday evening, after several hours of contentious debate in which scores of Republicans tried unsuccessfully to cut the size of the bill and offset a portion of it [...]

It’s not the $60 billion that passed last session, but we are getting closer. From ABC News: The House of Representatives voted on Friday to provide about $9.7 billion in relief funding to victims of Superstorm Sandy. The bill provides funding to the National Flood Insurance program by increasing the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) [...]

governorchrischristie on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free In a press conference today New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie slammed Speaker Boehner for failing to allow a vote on Hurricane Sandy Relief. After issuing a joint press release with Governor Cuomo of New York, Christie went on the offensive against Boehner and the House Republicans. “There is [...]

Somewhat lost in the shuffle last night was a disastrous response to a disaster: The fiscal cliff may have been averted Tuesday, but the next political fight was waiting in the wings and exploded just minutes later when House Speaker John Boehner announced he’d postpone a vote on a Hurricane Sandy relief bill until the [...]

Say what you will about the 2010 deal to extend the Bush tax cuts, which helped to set up what we’re seeing this month. But there was definitely a virtue in getting it done by early December, allowing for a productive lame duck session that repealed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, passed the New START arms [...]

While the nonsense continues on the fiscal slope, which increasingly looks like something the nation will have to weather, the Senate has been working on an appropriation for states suffering from the disaster caused by Hurricane Sandy. The parallel has to be understood: in one part of Washington, they’re trying to put in a deficit [...]

While waiting around for fiscal slope negotiations to conclude, Congress has bided its time with legislation seemingly timed for the holiday travel season. The House gave final approval to a bill that would give the TSA more leeway when screening checked baggage from international airports that is going on to a separate flight in the [...]

Late on Friday, the Administration made a $60.4 billion supplemental appropriation requestfor dealing with the effects of Hurricane Sandy on the East Coast. The request went directly to House Speaker John Boehner. The total is actually a bit higher than estimated. This is a rough sketch of what the Administration plans to use the funds fo.

For a Congress spending every waking minute talking about deficits, they sure know how to spend gobs of money above and beyond requested budgets – as long as it goes to the hands of defense contractors. The Senate version of the defense authorization bill costs $631 billion. This is $17 billion more than the Pentagon asked for. It passed 98-0. It now goes to a conference with the bill passed by the GOP-led House, which costs $3 billion MORE. The White House threatened to veto the bill over the budget overages, which is just adorable.

You wouldn’t know this from the coverage, as the press has moved on to deficits and grand bargains. But we still have a public health disaster in the middle of the heavily populated Eastern seaboard as a result of Superstorm Sandy and its aftermath. The New York City Health Department is warning medical providers that [...]