After touring parts of Indiana damaged by Sunday‘s tornadoes, one Indiana congressman says he will be consistent with his past votes to see federal budget cuts if relief money exceeds a certain level.
Republican Congressman Todd Rokita toured storm damage in his district on Monday; Komomo, Logansport and Lafayette, and says if Governor Pence asks President Obama for a federal disaster declaration, “you bet I‘ll be behind it.”
Rokita was criticized by some in both parties back in January for voting against $50 billion in supplemental emergency money for victims of Sandy in the northeast.
He argued that since the money was not originally in the federal budget, it should be offset with cuts from other parts of the budget.
The congressman says the same standard applies to his 4th District. “I will probably be offering amendments if it goes to an emergency funding situation on what will offset those costs, what we‘ll be willing to live without” Rokita said, adding that it was too early to tell if that would be the case.
The initial reports of damage across Indiana and eleven other states that were hit by Sunday‘s storms do not appear to approach that caused by Sandy, so enough money may have been allocated to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cover it already.
