States pressure Obama to find $82 billion for federal superstorm relief

President Obama is battling with lawmakers over federal spending.

No, not the fiscal cliff.

And he’s not even battling Republicans.

The White House is jostling with lawmakers from the states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut over how much of the tab for Hurricane Sandy relief efforts will be picked up by the feds.

Discussions have been going on for days. The governors of the affected states have requested $82 billion to clean up the storm damages and for infrastructure improvements to prepare for future storms.

White House officials expect Obama to send his proposal to Capitol Hill at the end of this week.

But on Wednesday the New York Times (an authoritative source for White House leaks) reported that Obama’s proposal to Congress will be about $50 billion. A huge amount of money, but not even close to what coast lawmakers have asked for.

The report has provoked disappointed reactions among senators of the affected states calling for more support by the administration. All six senators from the storm-ravaged states are Democrats, as are the vast majority of House members (including 100 percent of the Connecticut delegation).

The White House immediately called the New York Times report “premature speculation” and said the administration is currently working on the storm aid, so there’s no specific number yet.

Also on Wednesday, during a hearing before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan repeated the White House’s statement and promised that the administration won’t forget about the damaged coast states.

Referring to the New York Times report, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said, “If that is the number, it is inadequate. It will not even go remotely far enough to meet the needs of New York.”

Not to mention Connecticut and New Jersey.

Secretary Donovan did say that the administration’s emergency aid bill will include funding for storm damage prevention, something New York lawmakers have been calling for.

How the bill will be financed — whatever amount it would cover — isn’t clear yet.

On Thursday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie met with Obama at the White House to talk about the issue. Afterwards, he went to Capitol Hill to assure the coast states’ needs will be heard.