Under fire from enraged Northeastern lawmakers, House Republican leaders yesterday scheduled two votes on aid for victims of Superstorm Sandy.

The House will vote tomorrow on a measure to allow $9.7 billion in additional borrowing authority for the National Flood Insurance Program, which could hit its limit as soon as Jan. 7. It will vote on another $51 billion Sandy package on Jan. 15, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) announced in a joint statement yesterday afternoon.

"Getting critical aid to the victims of Hurricane Sandy should be the first priority in the new Congress," the leaders said following a meeting with livid members of their own party from New York and New Jersey.

The House had been set to vote on a $60.4 billion Senate-passed aid package late Tuesday when Boehner abruptly scrapped the vote. The move quickly drew an angry backlash from the region's lawmakers, with some of the strongest criticism coming from Republicans (Greenwire, Jan. 2).

New Jersey's famously blunt governor, Chris Christie (R), called a press conference yesterday in which he blasted the failure to hold a vote during the 112th Congress as "disgusting" and placed the blame squarely on his own party.

"There's only one group to blame ... the House majority and their speaker, John Boehner," Christie said. "This was the speaker's decision. He is alone."

And yesterday morning, Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) took to the airwaves to urge Northeasterners to close their wallets to the Republican Party.

"I'm saying anyone from New York or New Jersey who contributes one penny to the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee should have their head examined," King said on CNN. "Often, you give the benefit of the doubt to your party; I'm over that."

But King buried the hatchet after the meeting with GOP leaders in which they announced the votes.

"What's done is done," the New York lawmaker told reporters. "This was a very intense 24 and 48 hours; we're all big boys, we understand that. All that counts is the bottom line -- the bottom line is, we're getting the help we need, and the speaker and majority leader have committed to follow through."

Some Republicans had cringed at the cost of the Senate-passed measure and argued that the package includes funding unrelated to the storm. Lawmakers at the meeting yesterday said Boehner felt he couldn't ask Republicans to vote on it on the heels of a fiscal cliff package that some conservatives criticized as not including enough spending cuts.

Republicans had planned a two-part approach to their version of the bill, with House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) filing a $27 billion bill to address urgent needs, including the flood insurance program, and Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) filing a $33 billion amendment for longer-term recovery projects that would bring it to the Senate total.

Freylinghuysen said yesterday that Republicans have agreed to proceed with the same two-step scenario on Jan. 15, with $9.7 billion less in the first bill if that amount is approved tomorrow.

Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.), whose Staten Island district was hard hit by Sandy, said he was hopeful that he would be able to whip enough votes for the package.

"I did it once before -- on New Year's Eve, I had the votes -- and I'm going to tell you, I'm going to get the votes this time," Grimm said. "I can tell you that the New York and New Jersey delegation is going to be a force to reckon with, and I don't think there is anyone in this House that is going to be able to overcome [the] New York-New Jersey delegation."

The Senate will have to reconsider the legislation, though, since its bill dies at noon today when the 112th Congress ends.

A Senate aide said yesterday that the upper chamber plans a unanimous consent vote on the $9.7 billion for flood insurance tomorrow following the House vote.

"This is a positive step forward for the families and businesses still struggling after Sandy," Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said in a statement to Greenwire. "I will urge Senate leadership to make this our first priority in the next Congress."