Mystery still surrounds why House Majority Leader John Boehner pulled the $60 billion dollar Sandy disaster relief package from consideration Monday but Congressman Jon Runyan (R) says Boehner told him he "deserves" the firestorm of anger

Congressman Jon Runyan (R) during an appearance on MSNBC's Hardball
Congressman Jon Runyan (R) during an appearance on MSNBC's Hardball (MSNBC)
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During an appearance on MSNBC's Hardball on Monday, Runyan told guest host Michael Smirconish Boehner explained to him in a meeting, “I know there’s been a lot of frustration, a lot of anger that’s been directed at me. And he goes ‘I own it. I deserve it.

Smirconish called the delayed vote a "further wounding of the (Republican) party to which Ruyan, after expressing frustration with getting anything done in Congress, said the Sandy aid “is going to happen, why are we delaying it? Let’s get it done.”

Runyan, who in an earlier statement described his district as "ground zero" for Sandy damage,  warned that if the Jersey Shore isn't "close to up and running" when summer arrives the state will take a "huge" economic hit.

The first term Republican said that Governor Chris Christie, who verbally attacked Boehner for delaying a vote on Wednesday describes the Governor as "someone the American people are looking for. Someone that's going to shoot 'em straight" and brings "accountability" to the table to get action.

Runyan told Townsquare Media New Jersey the decision to delay the vote came as a complete shock to even members of Boehner's own party.

Runyan says, he and the entire New Jersey, New York and Connecticut delegations found out at the last minute by Boehner's staff and he says earlier concerns that the package was loaded with pork wasn't the reason why Boehner yanked the measure.

"I think that people just think that we're taking the Senate bill and passing it with all that pork in it and that's not what is happening here. The house has actually amended and changed that bill to make sure that all the stuff in here is Sandy-related." It will also again require Senate consideration.

Runyan says Boehner indicated that he pulled the package because he wasn't happy with the number of votes received on a measure to avert the fiscal cliff. He made similar comments during the Hardball interview.

However, even Runyan himself expresses disappointment in the climate on Capitol Hill. "Here we are again dragging our feet not creating a climate for people to be successful and it's the whole argument we've had here in Washington for the last two years and it's reared it's head again. Right at the last thing and something we know we're gonna do but yet we want to put it off for two weeks. It just doesn't make a lot of sense."

He says following a meeting with Boehner, what he does know right now is "he's promised us that we're going to have a vote Friday on the National Flood Insurance stuff. On the 15th we're gonna have the vote on the rest of it." Runyan says by then the measure would be taken up by the 113th Congress after committee's are repopulated and a new stand-alone bill is dropped, followed by an Amendment by New Jersey Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen.


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