"Eric Cantor is rarely shy about his position on disaster relief aid. Even before Hurricane Irene made landfall last year, the House majority whip's office said extra spending on recovery efforts should be balanced by spending cuts elsewhere. But in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Cantor and many of his conservative colleagues have suddenly gone mostly silent on such disaster relief 'offsets' -- even though New York and New Jersey are collectively asking for a whopping $79 billion in federal aid."

"That amount is far beyond the $11.3 billion allotted to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for disaster response and recovery in last year's debt deal, based on a 10-year rolling average.

'The Budget Control Act created a mechanism for disaster funding that prevented it from being redirected to non-disaster projects so it would be available in times like these, based on the 10-year average,' Cantor spokesman Doug Heye said in an email to HuffPost. He later added that his office hasn't yet seen the New York and New Jersey requests, but 'we're obviously very interested in receiving the proposal and will evaluate it accordingly.'"

Matt Sledge reports for the Huffington Post December 4, 2012. [2]

SEE ALSO:

"Hurricane Sandy Damage In New York By-The-Numbers" (Huffington Post) [3]