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Hurricane relief flawed

The March 5 edition of the New York Times had a nice report on the Hurricane Sandy relief bill. For the first time in history, the Congress voted 354 to 72 in favor of extending Federal Emergency Management Agency grants to churches, mosques, synagogues and other religious entities. This violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. All but six Republicans, those sticklers about the budget, voted for this mess.

The GOP has refused to allow anything meaningful to proceed for years, but is willing to bail out the various clergy who were too cheap to buy insurance. That $250 billion aid for Katrina had no money for the various religious groups, and rightly so. This mess of legislation did not have any discussion allowed.

Please consider contacting your senators, alerting them to the pitfalls of this legislation. And the next time anyone from the GOP insists they have your interest at heart, just check their voting record.

Carlos Weber

Northport, Wash.

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