Senate-passed $60.4 billion Sandy aid package heads to tight-fisted House

The $60.4 billion emergency-aid package for Hurricane Sandy victims that the Senate has passed now faces an uncertain, final vote Sunday in the Republican-controlled House, which has expressed a desire to pass a less-expensive bill in the final days of the lame duck session.

The measure passed the Democrat-controlled Senate on Friday by a 62-32 vote, after Republicans failed to pass amendments that would have cut the package to $24 billion.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that only about $9 billion of the $60.4 billion would be spent over the next nine months.

Rep. Paul Ryan, the party’s 2012 vice presidential nominee and a leading House fiscal conservative, has criticized the Democratic bill as "packed with funding for unrelated items” such as commercial fisheries in American Samoa and roof repair of museums in Washington.  Full Article