Lawmakers from the Northeast essentially have this week to persuade colleagues to back legislation resembling the White House's $60.4 billion request (E&E Daily, Dec. 10) for the victims of Superstorm Sandy -- otherwise they risk waiting until next year to provide any such funds, aides said Monday.

Although the lame-duck session of Congress is quickly coming to an end, there's an impressive legislative calendar still requiring lawmakers' attention. For starters, a measure that would avert the so-called fiscal cliff is expected to land on the docket before the holidays.

Congressional aides with knowledge of Senate proceedings agree that knowing how much aid the administration wants is the easy part. The hard part will be finding a way to move such a package before the 112th Congress adjourns in less than a month.

At this point, aides indicated senators will move the disaster aid by amending a funding bill that has passed the House this year. The likely legislative vehicle would be a fiscal 2013 measure that would fund the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects.

Aside from working on the bill, Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer of New York and Robert Menendez of New Jersey -- two of the leading proponents for the relief funds -- said they intend to call for certain tax relief for individuals affected by the superstorm.

Schumer called his approach a "common sense" way to help the towns hard hit by the superstorm. Adding the tax relief to the equation would mirror the approach Congress followed during Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts in 2005.

The challenge for the senators is that whatever supplemental package they send the House, a group of fiscal hawks there are likely to insist the supplemental request be offset through cuts at other agencies.

Some House Republicans have been arguing that not offsetting such a bill is not wise in today's national fiscal climate where congressional leaders and President Obama are negotiating a way to avoid across-the-board budget cuts and expiring tax benefits set to start at the end of the year.

Without enough support from the House GOP majority, the aid money could be derailed during the lame duck.

Democrats who control the Senate, who remind colleagues that offsets were not a factor when Congress provided emergency funding after Katrina, could seek an alternative legislative vehicle for the aid if they are faced with substantial resistance.

Whatever stand-alone process is taken, the funding bill must originate in the House.

Another approach could be to combine the relief funding with another prominent bill, such as the measure that would avert the fiscal cliff itself, although aides said that seems unlikely at this point.

Then there is the piecemeal approach. Lawmakers could pass a portion of disaster relief during the lame duck and the remainder during the 113th Congress, a scenario that has generated some buzz in the House but is generally opposed in the Senate.

"The thing about this [Congress] is we're now kicking the can down the road on many things, so I think they'll do the minimum and then come back after the holidays and finish up," a congressional aide said.