House kills spending bill with disaster aid

WASHINGTON (AP) - In a rebuke to GOP leaders, the House on Wednesday rejected a measure providing $3.7 billion for disaster relief as part of a bill to prevent a government shutdown at the end of next week.

The surprise 230-195 defeat came at the hands of Democrats and Tea Party Republicans.

Democrats were opposed because the measure contains $1.5 billion in cuts to a government loan program to help car companies build fuel-efficient vehicles. For their part, many GOP conservatives felt the underlying bill permits spending at too high a rate.

Idaho Republicans Raul Labrador and Mike Simpson, both voted in favor of the disaster relief bill.

The outcome sends House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and his leadership team back to the drawing board as they seek to make sure the government doesn't shut down on Sept. 30, the end of this fiscal year. It also raises the possibility that the government's main disaster relief program could run out of money early next week for victims of Hurricane Irene and other disasters.

Earlier Wednesday, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the No. 2 Republican in the House, had confidently predicted the measure would pass. Now, GOP leaders are scrambling to revive the measure today in hopes of wrapping up a final compromise with the Senate by the weekend. A rare weekend session is possible.

One option is to find a different spending cut to offset $1 billion worth of immediate disaster aid needed to make sure victims aren't cut off next week.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has only a few days' worth of aid remaining in its disaster relief fund, lawmakers said. The agency already has held up thousands of longer-term rebuilding projects - repairs to sewer systems, parks, roads and bridges, for example - to conserve money to provide emergency relief to victims of recent disasters.

The looming shortage has been apparent for months, and the Obama White House was slow to request additional money.

The White House, a vigorous advocate of greater fuel efficiency for U.S.-made cars, welcomed the result of Wednesday's vote.

"We are pleased that the House of Representatives today rejected efforts to put politics above the needs of communities impacted by disasters," the White House communications director, Dan Pfeiffer, said.

Forty-eight Republicans broke with GOP leaders on the vote; six Democrats voted for the measure. Some of the Republicans also came from manufacturing states like Michigan, which benefit from the loan program.