{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://payne.house.gov/press-release/payne-statement-one-year-anniversary-hurricane-sandy", "Payne Statement on One Year Anniversary of Hurricane Sandy", "2013-10-29", "2013", "2013-10", "Democrat", "House", "NJ", "Donald Payne", "P000604", "payne.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Newark, N.J. \u2013 Congressman Donald M. Payne, Jr. (NJ-10) released the following statement regarding the one year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy:\n\u201cToday marks the one year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy\u2019s destructive landfall on the state of New Jersey.\u00a0 The storm accounted for 346,000 destroyed housing units; 190,000 negatively affected businesses resulting in 107,000 job losses; and an estimated 34 people killed in New Jersey.\u00a0 It is imperative that we not only remember those lives that were lost due to the storm but, we must also honor them by assisting those still in need and improving upon our current systems. \u00a0\u00a0\n\u201cLast year, Congress approved $60 billion in aid towards Hurricane Sandy relief.\u00a0 However, the lack of available information and poor understanding of who qualifies have caused lower income households to receive less individual assistance from FEMA.\u00a0 Furthermore, the cost of recovery from Hurricane Sandy has widely outpaced our resources.\u00a0 New Jersey has an unmet need of $4.85 billion in direct damage costs and an additional $23.5 billion needed for hazard mitigation.\u00a0\n\u201cAs Members of Congress, it is our responsibility to ensure that we minimize the impacts of future storms of this magnitude.\u00a0 The lessons learned from Hurricane Sandy as well as Hurricane\u2019s Ike, Charlie, and Katrina should not be wasted.\u00a0 Now is the time to better secure our infrastructure to withstand these more frequent storms.\u00a0 Legislation such as my SMART Grid Study Act, which calls attention to our declining resiliency to major storms, should be given priority.\u00a0 We must not wait until another tragic event to occur for us to act.\u00a0 The moment for us to take a proactive instead of a reactive approach to these major storms has arrived. \u201d\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://payne.house.gov/press-release/payne-statement-one-year-anniversary-hurricane-sandy"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.7393501475453377, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}