Six months after Hurricane Sandy made landfall, the superstorm recovery situation remains a work in progress.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) appeared on Monday's edition of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," admitting from New York City's ravaged Rockaways that the government's aid response "took too long." Coupled with that realization, he sees better days ahead.
"I think the next six months will be a whole lot better than the previous six, and that's because we learned from the mistakes of Katrina in how to put this thing together," Schumer said.
But as MSNBC's "All In with Chris Hayes" pointed out Monday evening, Tuesday marks another benchmark for how far lawmakers will go to help affected Americans experience the "better" side. A week ago, the Epoch Times highlighted how April 30 is the deadline for displaced New York residents to exit their temporary hotel housing.
As of Monday afternoon, the New York Daily News reported that almost 200 families are set to be homeless again. WABC-TV reported last Thursday that the city instituted a 30-day extension for about 300 families that had procured housing but are unable to move by the deadline. With that divide set to hit home, the Coalition for the Homeless instituted a petition on Friday, urging Mayor Michael Bloomberg to extend what they consider an "arbitrary" deadline for all affected families.
In light of that impending debate, Hayes circled back to the political gridlock that gripped Congress at the start of 2013 over the federal Hurricane Sandy relief bill. After Washington ushered in New Year's Eve with a solution to the fiscal cliff crisis, New York-area House Republicans erupted on New Year's Day over the decision to not include a Sandy bill vote as part of the year-end equation. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) was equally irate, charging that it was a failure of the "most basic test of public service," with "callous indifference" to New Jersey residents.
By mid-January, political squabbles shifted to the reality of responsibility. The House passed a $51 billion relief measure on Jan. 15, and the Senate followed suit two weeks later. On Jan. 29, President Barack Obama signed the legislation into law.
"It was an affirmation of our society's basic belief that people should get the help they need in the wake of a disaster -- that a tragic, cruel twist of fate shouldn't be the thing that permanently knocks someone off of their rung on the economic ladder," Hayes said.
For the full segment from Monday's episode of "All In with Chris Hayes," click here.
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