Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-MS), the coastal Mississippi congressman who voted against a bill to help pay insurance claims for people whose homes were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Sandy despite publicly appealing for federal dollars after Hurricane Katrina, will visit disaster areas in New Jersey and the northeast on Tuesday, the Sun Herald of Biloxi, Miss. reports.
Echoing a statement provided to TPM by his spokeswoman last Friday, Palazzo told the Sun Herald that he intends “to bring attention to the need for disaster-relief reform, and insurance reform and how we’re going to build back resilient communities and make sure that we mitigate for future storms.” The second-term congressman, who called for federal funds after Katrina as deputy director and CFO of the Biloxi Housing Authority in 2005, also reiterated his concern about the price tag associated with disaster relief.
“The bigger picture is we also have to recognize that we have a financial disaster that is looming in this country that I believe, personally, in my heart, is going to be greater than any natural disaster that has ever hit us,” Palazzo said. “We can’t let opportunities go by where we don’t address these serious issues.”
