Tweet with a location 
 
 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Texas Republicans in Congress once stood nearly united against a bill to send billions of dollars in aid to Northeastern states recovering from Hurricane Sandy. Sen. Ted Cruz even ripped the legislation as “a Christmas tree” with billions of dollars in extraneous goodies. 
 
 New York and New Jersey Republicans haven’t forgotten the slight. And with Hurricane Harvey wreaking devastation down South — and Congress beginning to contemplate what will likely be a massive aid package — the tough-on-spending Texans could find themselves in an awkward spot. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 “The congressional members in Texas are hypocrites, and I said back in 2012 they’d be proven to be hypocrites. It was just a matter of time,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told reporters Monday. “We were the disaster that was the longest in waiting in terms of federal aid, and I hope that’s not what happens to the folks in Texas.” 
 
 Christie's comments came as GOP lawmakers from the region also vented their frustration at how Texas Republicans handled Sandy aid — even as they said they wouldn't repeat history in return. 
 
 “Despite my TX colleagues refusal to support aid in #SouthJersey time of need, I will support emergency disaster $$ for those impacted,” Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) tweeted on Monday morning. 
 
 Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) took aim directly at Cruz. 
 
 “Ted Cruz & Texas cohorts voted vs NY/NJ aid after Sandy but I'll vote 4 Harvey aid. NY wont abandon Texas. 1 bad turn doesn’t deserve another,” King tweeted over the weekend, as Harvey continued to pummel Houston. 
 
 The most reliable politics newsletter. Sign up for POLITICO Playbook and get the latest news, every morning — in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. 
 
 It's the reason disaster aid has largely been a bipartisan issue in Congress: Every lawmaker's district may, at some point, need federal assistance. And it's also the reason taking a rigid anti-spending stand on disaster relief is a risk: Now that Texas needs help, the lawmakers who once opposed aid to the Northeast are getting nicked by colleagues for hypocrisy. 
 
 "Many Texas reps and notoriously, @SenTedCruz fought against Sandy aid, so crucial to CT," tweeted Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.). "Going with my better angels to fight FOR Texas aid." 
 
 The rare public rebuke by two fellow Republicans — and less surprising Democratic criticism — underscores the frustration felt by many lawmakers whose districts were similarly hammered by Sandy. New York and New Jersey ultimately received aid amounting to nearly $60 billion, but not until conservative lawmakers attempted to pay for the package with spending cuts to other domestic programs. 
 
 “The United States Senate should not be in the business of exploiting victims of natural disasters to fund pork projects that further expand our debt,” Cruz said at the time. 
 
 Cruz reiterated his complaint on Monday. The Sandy bill, he said on MSNBC, was "filled w/ unrelated pork." A spokesman for Sen. Jon Cornyn (R-Texas), who also ultimately voted against the final Sandy relief package, emphasized on Twitter that Cornyn was supportive of the measure until "extraneous $ for non-relief items" was added. 
 
 It’s unclear whether Cruz will apply the same standards for federal aid this time. On Monday, Cruz said he appreciated assurances from President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence that “full federal assistance” would be ready to help Houston rebuild when the storm fully passes. 
 
 President Donald Trump, too, predicted Monday that there would be "fast" action on a spending bill to send aid to Texas. 
 
 It’s unclear how large an aid package will be needed. Rain was still pelting the Houston area late Monday, and the precise extent of the apparently massive damage to the area was uncertain. 
 
 But the Trump administration seemed to indicate that more federal aid would be coming. 
 
 “I think what you’re going to see is that the national government, and we anticipate the Congress, are going to make the resources available to see Texas through the rescue operation, through the recovery,” Vice President Mike Pence said in an interview with Houston’s KTRH. 
 
 House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California hinted at previous GOP reluctance to authorize disaster aid in a statement issued Monday afternoon. 
 
 “Republicans must be ready to join Democrats,” she said, “in passing a timely relief bill that makes all necessary resources available through emergency spending.” 
 
 There’s no indication yet that congressional leaders are coordinating a relief package. It’s too early for them to assess the funding needs for the region. But Trump is slated to huddle with congressional leaders next week to outline the September agenda, and the issue of disaster aid is certain to come up. 
 
 Katherine Landergan contributed to this report. ||||| The devastation was swift, and the recovery is far from over. Sign up for our ongoing coverage of Hurricane Harvey's aftermath. You can help by sharing your story here or sending a tip to harvey@texastribune.org. More in this series 
 
 WASHINGTON – Many New Yorkers and New Jerseyans serving in Congress have, for nearly five years now, kept a list of names handy to roll out at a moment’s notice. They call it “the Comeuppance Caucus.” 
 
 For some, the list is on a physical paper or bookmarked on a computer. For others, it's merely tattooed into their brains. It consists of which colleagues voted against Hurricane Sandy funding back in 2013, and it’s chock full of Texas Republicans. 
 
 In fact, nearly every Texas Republican who was serving in Congress at the time voted against the $50.5 billion aid bill. And now their own constituents are facing the biggest natural disaster in state history. 
 
 “There is deep and lingering resentment by members of Congress who needed help in their districts when Sandy just ravaged their constituents,” said former U.S. Rep. Steve Israel, a Democrat who represented Long Island until he retired last January. “[U.S. Sen] Ted Cruz and others led the fight against that aid, and a lot of people said there would be a day of reckoning.” 
 
 The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one. 
 
 Israel served in the Democratic House leadership in 2013, and his comments reflect numerous conversations happening within both the New Jersey and New York delegations since Harvey landed in Southeast Texas over the weekend, sparking widespread devastation and flooding. 
 
 Back in early 2013, Congress easily passed a massive funding package to support the victims of Hurricane Sandy, a storm that hammered the northern Eastern Seaboard just before the 2012 election. 
 
 Yet it galled many members from the region at the time that Republicans representing coastal states like Texas that are also susceptible to hurricanes would not back the bill, citing spending in it viewed by some as pork-barrel spending. 
 
 "Hurricane Sandy inflicted devastating damage on the East Coast, and Congress appropriately responded with hurricane relief," said Cruz in a statement at the time. "Unfortunately, cynical politicians in Washington could not resist loading up this relief bill with billions in new spending utterly unrelated to Sandy." 
 
 Both Cruz and his fellow senator from Texas, John Cornyn, as well as every Texas Republican in the U.S. House save for John Culberson of Houston, ultimately voted against the Disaster Relief Act of 2013. 
 
 Yet Cruz – often viewed as the most brash of the Texas delegation – has become the favorite target in recent days of current and former Northeast members gleefully noting that the shoe is now on the other foot. 
 
 The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one. 
 
 U.S. Rep Peter King, a Long Island Republican, took the biggest shot at the delegation on Saturday, tweeting, “Ted Cruz & Texas cohorts voted vs NY/NJ aid after Sandy but I'll vote 4 Harvey aid. NY wont abandon Texas. 1 bad turn doesnt deserve another.” 
 
 Democratic U.S. Rep. Kathleen Rice, concurred with her Long Island neighbor an hour later on Twitter. 
 
 And then on Monday, U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, a New Jersey moderate Republican, added to the dogpile, calling the Texans who voted against Sandy relief “hypocritical based on geography.” 
 
 Even New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie joined in. 
 
 "The congressional members in Texas are hypocrites," Christie told reporters Monday. "Even though I'm sure there's going to be some temptation by New Jersey House members in particular to drag their feet a little bit based upon what these folks in Texas did to us during Sandy, I'm going to be urging all our members to rise above that and provide the aid as quickly as possible." 
 
 That U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell offered some of the more measured criticism of the Texas delegation, remarkable considering the fiery New Jersey Democrat's reputation for rumbling with Republicans at any opportunity. 
 
 Some #TX members tried to deny #NJ aid after Sandy, but federal gov't must support fellow Americans in time of need. You have mine. #Harvey The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one. August 26, 2017 
 
 Cruz called the commentary “political sniping” in a Fox News interview Monday. 
 
 “I have been spending day and night ... trying to marshal federal assets to save lives,” he said. “That needs to be the priority. The silliness of Washington, we can worry about that a different time.” 
 
 When asked if Hurricane Harvey had changed his mind about his stance in 2013, Cruz stood by his vote. 
 
 “Of course not,” he said. “As I said at the time, hurricane funding is a very important federal responsibility, and I would have eagerly supported funding for that, but I didn’t think it was appropriate to engage in pork-barrel spending, where two-thirds of that bill was unrelated spending that had nothing to do with Sandy.” 
 
 “It was simply politicians wasting money,” he added. “That shouldn’t happen.” 
 
 But Israel countered that what Cruz and others might consider as pork "was significantly vital to rebuilding our region." 
 
 The Washington Post's Fact Checker dug into Cruz's latest remarks on Monday and ruled that "it is wildly incorrect to claim that the bill was 'filled with unrelated pork.' The bill was largely aimed at dealing with Sandy, along with relatively minor items to address other or future disasters." 
 
 Privately, several sources close to Texas Republican members echoed Cruz’s comments about wasteful spending but did not want to speak publicly about the issue. 
 
 But also, there was a sense that many in Texas were startled to see such anger from Northeast members of Congress while the rain still fell in Houston. And some northeastern sources in Congress bristled some at the timing of the angry tweets and comments, given the suffering in Texas. 
 
 And not everyone is mad at the Texas GOP delegation. 
 
 U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance, R-New Jersey, had no interest on Monday in engaging in the regional political war. 
 
 “I want to make clear and be as emphatic as possible: I do not approach with this a sense of anger,” he told the Tribune. “I supported funding for Sandy and will for this horrible situation.” 
 
 And U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a New York City Democrat, tweeted: "I'm praying for anyone suffering from Hurricane Harvey & stand ready to support any federal assistance needed." 
 
 Congress returns on Tuesday and will have a whole host of new problems to sort out, on top of a slew of budget deadlines barreling toward the two chambers. Is there a chance that the Sandy vote will come back to haunt Texas? 
 
 The bipartisan message blowing in from the Northeast: Congress will deliver the funds to Texas. While there is no interest in punishing fellow Americans, these members do want those in Congress from Texas to know just how personally they took those "no" vote when their own constituents were in trouble four and a half years ago. 
 
 “New Yorkers made the argument that when a storm strikes, it’s not striking one region, it’s striking the whole country, and I think my colleagues will be faithful to put their [voting] cards in and pushing the button,” said Israel. 
 
 “Until then, I think they’re enjoying making a point.” 
 
 Patrick Svitek contributed to this report.
– Even as Texas suffers perhaps the worst natural disaster in its history, congressmen from the northeast are using Hurricane Harvey as an opportunity to lash out at their Texas colleagues for voting against aid following Hurricane Sandy back in 2013. After Sandy devastated parts of New Jersey and New York in 2012, nearly the entire Texas Republican caucus, led by Sen. Ted Cruz, refused to vote for a multi-billion-dollar aid package, Politico reports. Since the rains started falling in Houston on Friday, several northeastern Republicans have attacked their colleagues for that vote. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called the Texas congressional delegation "hypocrites," and Reps. Peter King and Frank LoBiondo have tweeted their lingering displeasure. These New York and New Jersey congressmen have called the group who voted against the $50.5 billion aid package the "Comeuppance Caucus," the Texas Tribune reports. Cruz, however, says he stands by his vote, even in light of the huge storm in Texas, saying that the 2013 bill was full of unnecessary pork-barrel spending. "Two-thirds of that bill was unrelated spending that had nothing to do with Sandy," Cruz said Monday. Despite their frustration, the lawmakers who have taken a shot at the Texas delegation in the last few days have also promised to vote for a Harvey aid package. "NY wont abandon Texas," King tweeted Saturday. "1 bad turn doesnt deserve another.”