With legislation that would provide funds for states affected by Superstorm Sandy expected on the Senate floor early next week, some appropriators say they plan to boost the administration's mitigation request to help ensure new infrastructure projects can withstand the impact from violent weather.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), chairwoman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, said the Army Corps of Engineers' budget is "really woefully underfunded" and not well-positioned to build stronger projects.

"You don't want to rebuild what was there. You want to build something better, which is mitigating against future disasters. You don't want to build the same wall that failed, you want to build a better engineered project, so over time you save the taxpayer money," Landrieu said today.

She also took issue with the Obama administration's $13 billion request for federal agencies to prepare for natural disasters.

Senate appropriators are crafting a supplemental bill for the recovery efforts in the aftermath of the superstorm, with the hopes of putting legislation on the floor next week.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the goal is to formally unveil the bill in the next several days, leaving both chambers about two weeks to debate a bill and send it to the president's desk before the 112th Congress adjourns for the year.

"We desperately need it," Schumer said.

"We gotta get done before the end of the year," added Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), another leading proponent for disaster aid to the tri-state region.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Democrats discussed the Sandy relief bill during their weekly caucus lunch today, and "we are going to try to take this up before we break for Christmas, so it has to be done fairly quickly."

Time is running out in the lame duck amid a jam-packed schedule, including a proposal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff that might dominate valuable floor time.

Aside from the supplemental, Schumer and Menendez said their plan to call for certain tax relief measures for individuals affected by the superstorm would be treated separately.

The supplemental measure, aides suggest, would resemble certain parts of the White House's $60.4 billion aid request for superstorm recovery efforts.

To move the legislation, managers intend to amend a House-passed fiscal 2013 military construction and veterans' affairs funding bill, in order to meet a requirement calling for funding measures to originate in the House.

Even if senators pass a supplemental, they will have to contend with their counterparts in the House. There, various members might oppose supplemental legislation that is not paid for through offsets in other agencies, thus halting momentum before the end of the lame duck.

Durbin said it would be "fundamentally unfair" for Republicans to demand that the aid money be offset by cuts elsewhere.

"Let me tell you, I've been through this over and over and over again, and even in Republican states we have natural disasters, and this notion that we have to cut some money out of the budget, Medicare, you name it, in order to offset each of these disasters is unrealistic and unfair," he told reporters in the Capitol today.

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), a member of his party's leadership, said it would be appropriately prudent to try to offset the funds.

"I think in this budgetary environment, we ought to do everything we can to offset any kind of new spending," Thune told reporters today. "That's a big number. I'm not sure how it ends up, but we ought to" push for offsets.

Meanwhile, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said she will press colleagues to back funding for Maryland residents affected by the superstorm. Her concerns stem from a funding denial to certain state residents this month from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"We have to make sure the needs of Maryland are taken care of, and in that situation we need to ensure that rural communities of low population density at high impact are also considered," Mikulski said today.

The superstorm destroyed parts of the New York and New Jersey coastlines more than a month ago, bringing down power lines and damaging bridges, roadways and businesses. Government leaders from those states say the superstorm caused about $80 billion in damage.