Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said Tuesday he believes Texas lawmakers who opposed a disaster aid bill for Hurricane Sandy had learned "the error of their ways" in the aftermath of the destruction of Hurricane Harvey.
Harvey brought enormous flooding to the Houston, Texas area and caused billions of dollars in damage last month. President Donald Trump signed a $15.3 billion disaster aid package that Congress passed last week.
A reporter on Tuesday noted Schumer's experiences with trying to secure Hurricane Sandy relief for destruction from the 2012 storm in New York, and he wondered if there was concern that "the other side" might seek offsets and the removal of programs important to Democrats in exchange for Harvey relief.
Schumer called that a recipe for disaster.
"We've had a tradition in America when it comes to disaster that one part of the country is hurt, and the rest of the country steps up and aids them," he said. "That happened in Sandy. It didn't happen very easily. A whole lot of the Texas people were negative. I think they've learned—now that Texas has been hit and they see the need for this—the error of their ways, and I hope we don't go back through that. We'll see what happens."
Texas Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, along with eight Texas Republican members of the House of Representatives, voted against the January 2013 supplemental disaster aid bill for Sandy; Cruz said it was "chock-full of pork" and contained "billions in unrelated spending."