Lance Armstrong Admits to Doping

Lance Armstrong, formerly cycling's most decorated champion and considered one of America's greatest athletes, confessed to cheating for at least a decade, admitting on Thursday that he owed all seven of his Tour de France titles and the millions of dollars in endorsements that followed to his use of illicit performance-enhancing drugs.

After years of denying that he had taken banned drugs and received oxygen-boosting blood transfusions, and attacking his teammates and competitors who attempted to expose him, Armstrong came clean with Oprah Winfrey in an exclusive interview, admitting to using banned substances for years.

"I view this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times," he said. "I know the truth. The truth isn't what was out there. The truth isn't what I said.

"I'm a flawed character, as I well know," Armstrong added. "All the fault and all the blame here falls on me."

In October, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency issued a report in which 11 former Armstrong teammates exposed the system with which they and Armstrong received drugs with the knowledge of their coaches and help of team physicians.

George Burns/Courtesy of Harpo Studios, Inc./AP Photo

Lance Armstrong Admits Using Performance-Enhancing Drugs Watch Video

Lance Armstrong's Oprah Confession: The Consequences Watch Video

Lance Armstrong's Many Denials Caught on Tape Watch Video

The U.S. Postal Service Cycling Team "ran the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen," USADA said in its report.

As a result of USADA's findings, Armstrong was stripped of his Tour de France titles. Soon, longtime sponsors including Nike began to abandon him, too.

READ MORE: Did Doping Cause Armstrong's Cancer?

Armstrong said he was driven to cheat by a "ruthless desire to win."

He told Winfrey that his competition "cocktail" consisted of EPO, blood transfusions and testosterone, and that he had previously used cortisone. He would not, however, give Winfrey the details of when, where and with whom he doped during seven winning Tours de France between 1999 and 2005.

He said he stopped doping following his 2005 Tour de France victory and did not use banned substances when he placed third in 2009 and entered the tour again in 2010.

"It was a mythic perfect story and it wasn't true," Armstrong said of his fairytale story of overcoming testicular cancer to become the most celebrated cyclist in history.

READ MORE: 10 Scandalous Public Confessions

PHOTOS: Olympic Doping Scandals: Past and Present

PHOTOS: Tour de France 2012

Armstrong would not name other members of his team who doped, but admitted that as the team's captain he set an example. He admitted he was "a bully" but said there "there was a never a directive" from him that his teammates had to use banned substances.

"At the time it did not feel wrong?" Winfrey asked.

"No," Armstrong said. "Scary."

"Did you feel bad about it?" she asked again.

"No," he said.

Armstrong said he thought taking the drugs was similar to filling his tires with air and bottle with water. He never thought of his actions as cheating, but "leveling the playing field" in a sport rife with doping.

Read More..

Uncle of young Newtown shooting victim turning tragedy into action

On Dec. 14, Alexis Haller was on the phone working on a legal brief for the Vatican when his mother texted him to say that there had been a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. His nephew was missing.

Haller, a litigator in Washington state, monitored the news and felt his stomach drop when reports emerged that an entire classroom of children had been killed. Confirmation of the worst came later that day. His nephew, Noah Pozner, 6, had been shot 11 times at close range with a semiautomatic weapon, making him the youngest of the 26 people slain that day at the school.

One month later, Haller found himself in Washington, D.C. On Wednesday, the soft-spoken 39-year-old with rimless glasses and exhausted eyes sat in the front row of an auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building as the president and vice president announced new gun-control measures. Haller had crafted and forwarded several proposals to prevent future gun violence that were shaped by his experience as a lawyer for the Holy See. He also had publicly criticized the administration for what he considered an initial failure to reach out to victims and their families. In a political environment in which victims are often used as backdrops for a photo opportunity, Haller decided to use his awful status as an opportunity for advocacy.

“The thing my whole family on my sister’s side latched on to right away was we have to make something positive come out of it,” he said.

Before heading to the office building on Wednesday morning, Haller grabbed a pair of socks off the wall of clothier Jos. A. Bank. He had flown in late the night before, and the airline had lost his luggage in Burbank, Calif. An aide to Vice President Biden had offered to lend the visiting lawyer her husband’s blazer, but Haller preferred to shop for his own clothes. While sifting through suits and ties (“My nephew’s favorite color was blue”), he talked about his family’s “nightmare” month.

On the night of the shooting, Haller arrived in Connecticut to help lighten the logistical load for his sister, coordinating with a state trooper assigned to meet the family’s needs and establishing a Web site to collect donations to pay for counseling and education for Noah’s siblings, including his twin sister. He received an expression of support from the Holy See, met President Obama at Sandy Hook (“He was devastated”) and eulogized Noah at his funeral (“He would have become a great man”). When Haller’s wife, an active blogger, learned that a fake account had been set up in Noah’s name, the Princeton- and Stanford-educated Haller decried the scam on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.” The FBI thanked him, Haller said, for preventing more fraudulent activity.

Haller returned to Seattle on Dec. 28 to meet a deadline on the Vatican brief, but made time to talk to school-safety experts and read the Secret Service report on the shootings at Columbine High School. As he pored over research, he kept finding incidences of “leakage,” a term describing when a person intentionally or unintentionally reveals clues that may signal an impending violent act.

Read More..

Japan Dreamliners must remain grounded: govt

TOKYO: All Boeing Dreamliners operating in Japan must remain grounded until their batteries are confirmed to be safe, the government said Thursday, following a similar order in the US.

"Following the FAA (US Federal Aviation Administration) decision, Boeing 787s will not be allowed to fly until their battery safety is assured," said Hiroshi Kajiyama, Japan's vice transport minister, adding that a formal order would be issued later Thursday.

The comments come after a probable battery leak emerged as the focus of the investigation into the forced emergency landing of an All Nippon Airways (ANA) Dreamliner in Japan on Wednesday.

They also come after the FAA ordered that 787 Dreamliners in the United States stop flying until a fire risk linked to their lithium-ion batteries was resolved, dealing a huge blow to Boeing and its next-generation aircraft.

Lithium-ion batteries of different specifications are widely used in consumer electronics such as laptops and mobile phones.

Japan Airlines (JAL) and rival ANA -- which together operate half the world's Dreamliners -- voluntarily grounded their fleets after the ANA flight made an emergency landing in southwestern Japan.

India's transport safety agency said on Wednesday it was also launching a probe of the fuel-efficient Dreamliner.

Kajiyama on Thursday said officials investigating the safety scare "reported that there are problems in the battery" and other parts of the plane.

"Just by observing with the naked eye, the battery showed abnormalities, but electricity-linked equipment is complex so we need more investigation," he said.

Electrolyte leaks and burn marks have been found on the battery's metal casing, ANA said, with officials from the Japan Transport Safety Board working on the principle that it overheated, Kyodo News reported.

"Liquid leaked through the room floor to the inside of the outer wall of the aircraft," the agency quoted investigator Hideyo Kosugi as saying.

Japan's Transport Minister Akihiro Ota earlier described the emergency landing as a "serious incident that could have led to a serious accident".

Embattled Boeing on Wednesday backed its Dreamliner, considered an aviation milestone for its use of lightweight carbon fibre materials and advanced electronics systems.

"We are confident the 787 is safe and we stand behind its overall integrity," Boeing CEO Jim McNerney said in a statement.

"We will be taking every necessary step in the coming days to assure our customers and the travelling public of the 787's safety and to return the airplanes to service."

Boeing, whose shares make up part of the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average, tumbled 3.4 percent on Wednesday.

The FAA order means 30 of the world's 50 Dreamliners have been grounded, with the two Japanese carriers operating almost half the world's fleet.

United Airlines, the world's biggest airline, is currently the only US airline operating the 787, with six aircraft in service.

Speaking after the FAA announcement, an ANA spokeswoman told Dow Jones Newswires: "We'll examine the information we've gotten so far and exchange information further as necessary and will attempt to take appropriate steps as soon as possible."

The carrier, which together with JAL has invested billions of dollars in the Dreamliner with a combined order totalling 111 aircraft, "has not made any" decisions over future use of the aircraft, she added.

A spokesman for JAL said it was too early to comment on the FAA decision but added that "we will continue to collect information".

In Tokyo trading on Thursday, ANA shares were down 0.54 percent to 181 yen by the midday break while Japan Airlines was off 0.27 percent at 3,665 yen.

- AFP/al

Read More..

Hina Rabbani Khar proposes foreign minister-level talk to defuse tension along LoC

NEW DELHI: Stating that continued tension along the LoC is not in the interest of peace and stability in the region, Pakistan foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar has offered to discuss the issue at the lever of the foreign ministers. In what appeared to be a climb-down after her "warm-mongering" remark against Indian leaders, Khar also said that Pakistan and India are both important countries of South Asia and that it is imperative that they demonstrate "requisite responsibility for ensuring peace by addressing all concerns through dialogue".

"Instead of issuing belligerent statements by the military and political leaders from across the border and ratcheting up tension, it is advisable for the two countries to discuss all concerns related to Line of Control (LoC) with a view to reinforcing respect for the ceasefire, may be at the level of the Foreign Ministers to sort out things," said Khar in a late night statement.

Khar said Pakistan has invested hugely in the dialogue process and has worked energetically to keep the dialogue process moving forward in a sustained and constructive manner. "Pakistan has gone out of the way to build constructive relationship with India," she said.

"Rhetoric and ratcheting up of tensions is certainly counter-productive. We are saddened and disappointed at the continued negative statements emanating from India both from the media as well as certain Indian leaders. For its part, Pakistan has observed a measured and deliberate self-restraint in our public statements on India. This has been done keeping in view the interest of peace in the region," she added.

Read More..

6 Ways Climate Change Will Affect You

Photograph by AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez

The planet keeps getting hotter, new data showed this week. Especially in America, where 2012 was the warmest year ever recorded, by far. Every few years, the U.S. federal government engages hundreds of experts to assess the impacts of climate change, now and in the future.

From agriculture (pictured) to infrastructure to how humans consume energy, the National Climate Assessment Development Advisory Committee spotlights how a warming world may bring widespread disruption.

Farmers will see declines in some crops, while others will reap increased yields.

Won't more atmospheric carbon mean longer growing seasons? Not quite. Over the next several decades, the yield of virtually every crop in California's fertile Central Valley, from corn to wheat to rice and cotton, will drop by up to 30 percent, researchers expect. (Read about "The Carbon Bathtub" in National Geographic magazine.)

Lackluster pollination, driven by declines in bees due partly to the changing climate, is one reason. Government scientists also expect the warmer climate to shorten the length of the frosting season necessary for many crops to grow in the spring.

Aside from yields, climate change will also affect food processing, storage, and transportation—industries that require an increasing amount of expensive water and energy as global demand rises—leading to higher food prices.

—Daniel Stone

Published January 16, 2013

Read More..

FAA Grounds Boeing 787 Dreamliners

The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered the grounding of Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets until their U.S. operator proves that batteries on the planes are safe.

United is the only U.S. carrier flying the Boeing 787s, which have been touted as the planes of the future. However, several operated by overseas airlines have run into recent trouble, the latest because of a feared battery fire on a 787 today in Japan.

The FAA's so-called emergency airworthiness directive is a blow to Boeing, from the same government agency that only days ago at a news conference touted the Dreamliner as "safe." Even Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood went so far as to say he would have no issue flying on the plane.

Now, United will need to prove to the FAA that there is no battery fire risk on its six Dreamliners. An emergency airworthiness directive is one that requires an operator to fix or address any problem before flying again.

"Before further flight, operators of U.S.-registered Boeing 787 aircraft must demonstrate to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that the batteries are safe and in compliance," the FAA said in a statement today. "The FAA will work with the manufacturer and carriers to develop a corrective action plan to allow the U.S. 787 fleet to resume operations as quickly and safely as possible."

United Airlines responded tonight with a statement: "United will immediately comply with the airworthiness directive and will work closely with the FAA and Boeing on the technical review as we work toward restoring 787 service. We will begin reaccommodating customers on alternate aircraft."

787 Dreamliner Grounded, Passengers Forced to Evacuate Watch Video

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Deemed Safe Despite Mishaps Watch Video

Jim McNerney, Boeing's chairman, president and CEO, expressed regret about any scheduling disruptions in a written statement, adding that Boeing was "confident the 787 is safe and we stand behind its overall integrity."

"The safety of passengers and crew members who fly aboard Boeing airplanes is our highest priority," McNerney said. "Boeing is committed to supporting the FAA and finding answers as quickly as possible. The company is working around the clock with its customers and the various regulatory and investigative authorities. We will make available the entire resources of The Boeing Company to assist."

There are some 50 Dreamliners flying in the world, mostly for Japanese airlines, but also for Polish and Chilean carriers.

Overseas operators are not directly affected by the FAA's emergency airworthiness directive -- but Japanese authorities grounded all of their 787s overnight after All Nippon Airways (ANA) said a battery warning light and a burning smell were detected in the cockpit and the cabin, forcing a Dreamliner, on a domestic flight, to land at Takamatsu Airport in Japan.

The plane landed safely about 45 minutes after it took off and all 128 passengers and eight crew members had to evacuate using the emergency chutes. Two people sustained minor injuries on their way down the chute, Osamu Shinobe, ANA senior executive vice president, told a news conference in Tokyo.

ANA and its rival, Japan Airlines (JAL), subsequently grounded their Dreamliner fleets. ANA operates 17 Dreamliner planes, while JAL has seven in service.

Both airlines said the Dreamliner fleet would remain grounded at least through Thursday.

ANA said the battery in question during today's incident was the same lithium-ion type battery that caught fire on board a JAL Dreamliner in Boston last week. Inspectors found liquid leaking from the battery today, and said it was "discolored."

Japan's transport ministry categorized the problem as a "serious incident" that could have led to an accident.

Even more shaken up than the passengers on the Japanese flight may be the reputation of America's largest plane manufacturer, Boeing.

Since the 787 -- with a body mostly made of carbon fiber -- was introduced, it's had one small problem after another. But the nagging battery issue, which caused an onboard fire at Boston's Logan Airport last week, was serious enough for the FAA to ground the plane.

"It's a rough couple weeks for Boeing and ANA," said John Hansman, an MIT professor of aeronautics and astronautics. "I think clearly in the short term this type of bad press has been tough for Boeing. I think in the long haul, this is a good airplane. It's in a good market."

Read More..

Several 'slight injuries' in Dreamliner evacuation: police

TOKYO: Several people were slightly injured during the evacuation of an All Nippon Airways Dreamliner that made an emergency landing in Japan on Wednesday, police said.

"We have reports that several people were slightly injured," said a spokesman at Kagawa police, which covers the Takamatsu area in western Japan.

"We heard they sustained injuries -- minor ones such as scratches -- when they were getting out of the plane," he said.

Broadcaster NHK quoted a passenger saying he had feared the plane was going to crash as it flew over Japan's fourth largest island of Shikoku.

"I smelled something strange when the plane was going into a cruising altitude after take-off," he told the broadcaster. "I didn't see smoke."

"The plane then started descending rapidly and I thought 'this could crash'. I was surprised as there was an announcement that it was making an emergency landing at Takamatsu airport."

- AFP/ck

Read More..

Pak FM Hina Rabbani Khar says India is 'war-mongering', maintains no beheading took place

WASHINGTON: Pakistan's foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar went on a strident diplomatic offensive in the US on Tuesday, accusing India of "war-mongering" and embarking on a "narrative of hostility," while presenting her country as a paragon of peace and amity in the context of border tensions between the two countries.

"I thought war-mongering was a thing of yesteryears and we had put it behind us," the foreign minister of a country that is recognized as having initiated three wars against India said at an Asia Society talk, artfully glossing over her country's well-chronicled record of hostilities to change status-quo. Pakistan, she said, was "deeply disappointed" with statements coming from the highest levels of the Indian government, but it would not give up on its "deep abiding commitment to pursue peace with India."

"I am happy we are not responding in kind either by word or by action," Khar added, speaking of the reaction (or non-reaction) in Pakistan, where national attention is focused on the shadow war between the feeble civilian government, an assertive judiciary, and the domestically powerful military. "We should not close the door. The dialogue should be uninterrupted and uninterruptible. That is what mature countries do."

Khar was ostensibly responding to the familiar story-line evident in a New York Times headline that cited Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accusing Pakistan of restarting hostilities in Kashmir and amid reports of New Delhi once again considering downgrading ties. Singh is widely praised in the US for pursuing a peace agenda with Pakistan despite what even American interlocutors say is the country's unremitting use of terrorism as a state policy.

While her talk — and her earlier interview on the Charlie Rose show — was mainly centered on the domestic turmoil in Pakistan, Khar used the platforms to glibly portray Pakistan's civilian government as being committed to peace with India, although the country is widely seen to be run by its jihadist military whose chief has articulated ceaseless hostility toward India, insisting he sees it as Pakistan's principle enemy.

But Khar relentlessly beat the peace drum before a mainly western audience in New York City, insisting Pakistan was the one pressing for amity and it was India that was upping the ante. "We don't take political mileage through hostile narrative," she said, suggesting that the border spat had become fodder for domestic politics in India. "The doors to dialogue should remain open rather us speaking through public and the media."

While platitudes flowed thick and fast from the foreign minister of a country seen across the world as sponsoring terrorism against its neighbors, she also brushed aside charges relating to the beheading of an Indian soldier, saying Pakistan had "looked intensely" and "found no evidence of an incident like this."

"There is no question of anyone every authorizing any beheading. It goes against our commitment to the peace process," she said. Besides, she added, there were mechanisms and processes to look into such charges. Khar also skirted a question about whether the alleged beheading indicated the Pakistani military had been infiltrated by Taliban and al-Qaida elements for whom beheading so-called infidels and kaffirs is a trademark.

Between the homilies, there was some disingenuous dissembling about the actions Pakistan had supposedly taken "at great political risk" to normalize trade, although the ground reality is that Islamabad has again reneged on a signed commitment on this matter. Instead, Khar accused India of going back on recent visa agreements.

Some of the mendacity was called out by the audience during searching questions about the Pakistani military establishment's ties to Osama bin Laden and the Haqqani terrorist group. Backed into a corner by a question about her army chief Pervez Ashfaq Kayani describing the Haqqani group as a "strategic asset," Khar bailed out of it by saying, "that is not his view now." And even though Pakistan has done little to rewrite the national curriculum of hate that sees anyone other than Muslims (and lately only Sunnis) as "infidels" and "kafirs" leading to large scale murder of minorities, Khar insisted on presenting Pakistan as epitome of moderation.

When questions finally turned to the ongoing domestic turmoil in Pakistan, she dismissed the cleric Tahir-ul Qadri as a troublemaker who was making "preposterous demands" for which he could be arrested. When asked about corruption in Pakistan, her response was to point out there was corruption in all countries, particularly in India where there had been many scams.

Read More..

Mars Rover Finds Intriguing New Evidence of Water

The first drill sample ever collected on Mars will come from a rockbed shot through with unexpected veins of what appears to be the mineral gypsum.

Delighted members of the Curiosity science team announced Tuesday that the rover was now in a virtual "candy store" of scientific targets—the lowest point of Gale crater, called Yellowknife Bay, is filled with many different materials that could have been created only in the presence of water. (Related: "Mars Has 'Oceans' of Water Inside?")

Project scientist John Grotzinger, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said during a press conference that the drill area has turned out "to be jackpot unit. Every place we drive exposes fractures and vein fills."

Mission scientists initially decided to visit the depression, a third of a mile from Curiosity's landing site, on a brief detour before heading to the large mountain at the middle of Gale Crater. But because of the richness of their recent finds, Grotzinger said it may be some months before they begin their trek to Mount Sharp.

The drilling, expected to start this month, will dig five holes about two inches (five centimeters) into bedrock the size of a throw rug and then feed the powder created to the rover's two chemistry labs for analysis.

The drill is the most complex device on the rover and is the last instrument to be used. Project Manager Richard Cook, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said that operating it posed the biggest mechanical challenge since Curiosity's high-drama landing. (Watch video of Curiosity's "Seven Minutes of Terror.")

A Watery Past?

That now-desiccated Mars once had a significant amount of surface water is now generally accepted, but every new discovery of when and where water was present is considered highly significant. The presence of surface water in its many possible forms—as a running stream, as a still lake, as ground water soaked into the Martian soil—all add to an increased possibility that the planet was once habitable. (Watch a video about searching for life on Mars.)

And each piece of evidence supporting the presence of water brings the Curiosity mission closer to its formal goal—which is to determine whether Mars was once capable of supporting life.

Curiosity scientists have already concluded that a briskly moving river or stream once flowed near the Gale landing site.

The discovery of the mineral-filled veins within Yellowknife Bay rock fractures adds to the picture because those minerals can be deposited only in watery, underground conditions.

The Curiosity team has also examined Yellowknife Bay for sedimentary rocks with the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI).  Scientists have found sandstone with grains up to about the size of a peppercorn, including one shaped like a flower bud that appears to gleam. Other nearby rocks are siltstone, with grains finer than powdered sugar. These are quite different from the pebbles and conglomerate rocks found in the landing area, but all these rocks are evidence of a watery past. (Related: "A 2020 Rover Return to Mars?")

One of the primary reasons Curiosity scientists selected Gale crater as a landing site was because satellite images indicated that water-formed minerals were present near the base of Mount Sharp. Grotzinger said that the minerals' presence so close to the landing site, and some five miles from the mountain, is both a surprise and an opportunity.

The current site in Yellowknife Bay is so promising, Grotzinger said, that he would have been "thrilled" to find similar formations at the mission's prime destination at the base of Mount Sharp.  Now the mission can look forward to the surprises to come at the mountain base while already having struck gold.

Read More..

Sandy Aid Clears Huge Hurdle in Congress

(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Seventy-nine days after Hurricane Sandy slammed into the Northeast, the House of Representatives voted this evening to approve about $50 billion of additional relief for the region pounded by the storm.

The measure passed 241-180, mostly behind Democratic support, winning 49 votes from Republicans and 192 votes from Democrats. Just one Democrat opposed the legislation, while 179 Republicans voted against it.

The base bill, known as the Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief Act, included about $17 billion to fund immediate and critical needs for Sandy victims and their communities. An amendment offered by New Jersey Republican Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen to provide an additional $33 billion for disaster relief also passed, bringing the total amount of relief closer to the Obama administration’s emergency supplemental request, which called for $60.4 billion in total relief.

The Senate still must approve the legislation before President Obama can sign it into law.

An amendment offered by South Carolina Republican Rep. Mick Mulvaney to require all funding in the disaster package to be offset fell well short of the votes required to change the bill, 162-258.

Democrats and Republicans from the storm-ravaged region shared a common frustration over members who opposed to the relief package.

“To use this funding as a political pawn in a game over the role of government and budgetary debates is shameful,” New York Democratic Rep. Elliot Engel wrote in a statement shortly after the vote. “The first order of business for the federal government is to protect our citizens, and helping them recover from the tragedy of a natural disaster is one of those times.”

“I am pleased that the House of Representatives has finally passed legislation to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy,” Rep. Jon Runyan, R-N.J., stated after the vote. “I am hopeful that the Senate will quickly debate and pass this bipartisan legislation so that families in New Jersey and New York will not have to continue to wait for the aid they need.”

The governors of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, the three states  hit hardest by the storm, had all angrily criticized Republicans in the House for deciding not to vote on an aid package passed by the Senate in December, but after the measure’s passage tonight issued a joint statement thanking the House.

“We are grateful to those members of Congress who today pulled together in a unified, bipartisan coalition to assist millions of their fellow Americans in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut at their greatest time of need,” Gov. Chris Christie, N.J.; Gov. Andrew Cuomo, N.Y.; and Gov. Dannel Molloy, Conn., wrote in the statement.

“The tradition of Congress being there and providing support for Americans during times of crisis, no matter where they live across this great country, lives on in today’s vote in the House of Representatives,” they wrote. “We anticipate smooth passage when this package moves back to the Senate for final approval and for this long-awaited relief to finally make its way to our residents.”

Nevertheless, there were still many lawmakers who opposed the package because they felt it contained non-emergency spending.

“The final version passed here tonight includes billions in pork and unrelated spending that we cannot afford while Americans are struggling to make ends meet,” Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., wrote in a statement. “Hurricane Sandy victims need a simple, responsible aid package, and nothing more.  Our nation is facing a debt crisis: it’s time for Washington to stop using important bills to fund its own political projects.”

Congress has already approved $9.7 billion for flood insurance on Jan. 4. The House also passed a separate bill without opposition Monday evening, the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act, to speed up and streamline federal disaster recovery programs.

After the House voted Jan. 1 on the “fiscal cliff” deal, House Speaker John Boehner decided not to vote on any relief during the 112^th Congress. Republicans and Democrats from the region revolted until Boehner held a private meeting with angry Republican members, during which he promised to make Sandy relief a priority in the 113^th Congress.

The legislation was opposed by numerous leading conservative interest groups, including Heritage Action, Americans for Tax Reform, and the Club for Growth, which all warned Republicans not to support the measure.

Read More..