After contentious battles over emergency disaster relief funding in 2011, congressional Democrats and Republicans reached a bipartisan agreement during the August debt talks that would make it easier to fund disaster relief in the future. But that deal, like others reached under the Budget Control Act, would be voided by the House Republican budget, authored by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI).

According to a legislative report on the House GOP’s budget, the disaster relief deal will not be recognized in the future should the budget take effect. Instead, emergency funds would have to be offset with other spending cuts, Politico reports:

“The budget assumes that any future disaster-relief-designated spending relief will be fully offset within the discretionary levels provided in this resolution,” the report reads. “Accordingly, the budget does not assume the extension of the disaster funding enacted last year and the upward adjustment of the BCA’s spending caps for subsequent years and it reflects the removal of this spending.”

The result of rolling back that deal is that future efforts to fund disaster relief will likely be heavily politicized, as they were in the wake of multiple disasters in 2011. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) took disaster relief funds hostage when he repeatedly declared that the House wouldn’t fund it without spending offsets. The GOP then attempted to cut spending from programs they opposed to pay for disaster relief, then nearly forced a government shutdown over the funds before buying off conservative members with additional spending cuts.

Last year wasn’t the first time that House Republicans attempted to hold disaster relief hostage to extract spending cuts from programs they opposed. By rolling back the 2011 deal, they’re ensuring that if their budget passes, it won’t be the last time either.

Earlier this year, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) made a series of major missteps when he decided the House GOP would not release federal disaster funds unless it included offsetting spending cuts following a deadly Missouri tornado, a hurricane that hit the east coast, and an earthquake in Virginia.

Though Cantor was roundly criticized for the move, a look back to the 104th Congress revealed the origins of Cantor’s idea: Newt Gingrich.

Less than two months after Gingrich took over as House speaker in 1995, one of his first orders of business was to propose holding off on federal disaster aid unless it was accompanied by spending cuts elsewhere in the budget. Gingrich downplayed the long-held system of sending federal relief money to areas stricken by natural disaster without making it contingent on ideologically-driven cuts, telling reporters, “you don’t have this thing of waving a magic wand and saying, ‘Well, this is an emergency.’”

This was not simply a theoretical exercise. When the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing occurred later that year, Gingrich held federal disaster aid hostage unless he received offsetting spending cuts, prompting the Philadelphia Daily News to write that “Even Newt Gingrich must lose a little sleep at the idea of making political hay out of the mini-civil war that struck Oklahoma City.”

The Free Lance-Star from February 11, 1995, has more:

President Clinton last week asked Congress for an extra $4.9 billion in emergency aid to pay for repairs lingering from the Northridge earthquake in Southern California a year ago. He also is seeking an additional $500,000 to repair damage from last month’s record flooding in the state.

Typically, those funds are sent to states under special budget rules that do not require Congress to earmark offsetting cuts.

But that practice, Gingrich said, is about to change.

“We’re going to have to find a way to offset that,” he said.

Gingrich went on to criticize President Clinton for refusing “to suggest where to cut to pay for federal disaster aid.” Not all congressional spending proposals were held to this same standard though. As the Washington Post wrote in July 1996, Gingrich “instructed a House Appropriations panel to earmark an additional $15 million for water projects to boost reelection prospects of Republicans in California, Illinois, New Jersey and Washington state.”

Pork-barrel projects like these were deemed important enough to merit a special earmark, but Gingrich held disaster relief money hostage unless Congress and the president agreed to offsetting spending cuts elsewhere. Sixteen years later, Cantor took up the mantle and used the devastating Joplin tornado, which killed 159 people, to try to extract spending cuts from congressional Democrats.

Despite making promises not to do so, House Republicans are holding disaster relief funding hostage, demanding the money be offset by spending cuts elsewhere so as to not increase the deficit, even though this has never been done in the past. House Republicans finally passed a bill to fund FEMA and the rest of the government last week, but only days after the Senate passed their own version without offsets and after House conservatives killed an earlier version with slightly fewer spending cuts.

But speaking this morning on CNN, GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain said Congress should fund FEMA now and worry about the offsets later, drawing a sharp line against lawmakers using the funds as a “political football” while people are suffering:

CAIN: I would make sure that FEMA got the money it needed, and if I had to go find the offsets later, go find it later. Stop playing with peoples’ tragedies — these are real people we’re talking about.

HOST: So you’re saying, right now we should just fund FEMA and forget about the offsetting spending cuts, and maybe later, if we find them, then go back and get the deal done that way.

CAIN: Yes. … We’re going to have a gentleman’s agreement that we will find the offsets, rather than finding the offsets right in the middle of it and making it a political football.

Watch it:

Asked about Sen. Mark Warner’s (D-VA) comments yesterday that the Tea Party faction in the House is to blame for the hold up, Cain said the conservative lawmakers need to pick their battles better. “I would not make this a battleground, Cain said. “This is one that I would basically try to, you know, fall on my sword for — go ahead and do what’s right for the people.”

Cain added that Congress “should put politics aside” and fund FEMA because “people should not have to suffer because of the political bickering.” Congress returns to work today to try again, with FEMA money running out soon and funding for the rest of the government ending Friday.

House Republicans finally pushed through their continuing resolution early this morning after finding yet another $100 million in spending cuts that satiated the conservatives who wouldn’t approve disaster relief funds without matching offsets. Immediately after it passed, spokespersons for Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) took to Twitter to warn Senate Democrats against blocking funds for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), despite the fact that a bipartisan Senate majority passed a $7 billion FEMA relief package a week ago.

At a news conference today, Boehner and Cantor themselves joined in those warnings, attempting to blame Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and his Democratic colleagues for blocking disaster relief funds. Cantor, who has repeatedly insisted that the House would not approve disaster relief funds without offsets, blasted Reid for “blocking” funds that victims of multiple natural disasters needed:

CANTOR: As the Speaker indicated, there are people who are suffering in a big way, and they need to know that FEMA and the disaster relief monies will be there for them.

Watch it:

That’s an interesting change of position for Cantor, who was the first Republican to mention exchanging disaster relief funds for spending offsets in the wake of the tornadoes that hit Joplin, Missouri in May. Cantor again insisted on offsets after the East Coast earthquake that was centered in Mineral, Virginia — the heart of his own district. And for good measure, Cantor again noted that offsets were necessary for disaster funds after Hurricane Irene battered states along the East Coast from North Carolina to Vermont.

Democrats in both the Senate and House have been attempting to approve disaster relief without massive spending offsets to popular programs, including those that once had broad Republican support. And they haven’t been alone in their opposition. Cantor’s actions on disaster relief earned him rebuke from multiple Republican governors and put him out of step with former Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay (TX), who pushed through deficit-financed disaster relief after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Louisiana has had its share of disasters during Gov. Bobby Jindal’s (R) time holding political office, from hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 (when Jindal was a congressman) to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that threatened the state’s beaches and waterways in 2010. The federal government came to Louisiana’s aid in each case, spending billions of dollars in emergency disaster funds to help clean up and rebuild the state in the aftermath of the disasters. In none of those instances did Congress offset the emergency funds with spending cuts, and in none of those instances did Jindal go out of his way to ask them to.

But with states across the nation rebuilding in the aftermath of hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, and tornadoes, Jindal wants to put restrictions on emergency funds that didn’t exist for the funds that benefited his own state. In an appearance on MSNBC’s Daily Rundown today, Jindal told host Chuck Todd that deficits and debt are a “man-made disaster,” and because of those, the disaster relief funds for New Jersey, Virginia, and other states in desperate need of relief “should be offset”:

TODD: There’s been a movement afoot to…search for budget offsets now, a change frankly. [...] Any advice for your fellow Republicans in the House when dealing with disaster relief?

JINDAL: We certainly as a state benefited after Katrina and Rita from the generosity of the American people. I fully support making sure the resources, the necessary resources, are there to help. [...] I do however, also support, at the same time, so they need, they deserve the help they need to get back on their feet. At the same time, I do think these dollars should be offset, should be part of a balanced approach to the budget. The reality is the deficit, the debt in DC is not caused by natural disasters, that’s a man-made disaster.

Watch it:

While some Republicans fought to offset Hurricane Katrina funding, Jindal was not among them, and neither was then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), who argued that the funds should be deficit financed. And in 2008, Jindal traveled to Washington to lobby Congress to preserve $400 million in funding for ongoing hurricane relief and recovery efforts that had been stripped because they weren’t offset by other cuts.

Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond (D), who represents New Orleans, recently told the New Orleans Times-Picayune he couldn’t imagine what would have happened had Republicans held disaster relief hostage for the millions driven out when Katrina put his city under water. “We would have been waiting for months or even years for the assistance we needed to get New Orleans up and running again,” Richmond said. Jindal, apparently, has forgotten that.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) has led the charge against approving emergency disaster relief funds without matching spending offsets since May, when he opposed relief funds for Missouri tornado victims until the House made sufficient spending cuts. Cantor has more recently opposed disaster funds for tornadoes in Alabama, Hurricane Irene in multiple states, and the recent East Coast earthquake that centered in his own district, unless equal spending cuts were made. On the eve of 9/11′s 10th anniversary, Cantor even insisted on spending cuts to first responders to pay for disaster relief.

Despite allegations from both Democrats and Republicans that Cantor is holding disaster relief funding hostage to extract further spending reductions, Cantor asserted yesterday at the American Action Forum in Washington D.C. that “no one” is holding any disaster relief funding “hostage”:

CANTOR: It’s important to get relief to the people who need it. No one is holding any money hostage. I also think we can do it in a responsible way.

Mere hours before his comments, however, Senate Republicans did just that, filibustering a $7 billion disaster relief package in the Senate because it did not contain spending offsets. Sen. John Thune (R-SD) last week told reporters, “We have got to find a way to pay for these things,” and other Republican senators said they wouldn’t support a plan without offsets.

Asked why the GOP would oppose that funding, Cantor explained that the party was blocking those funds both on procedural grounds and because the cuts had not been offset, saying lawmakers should “responsibly” approve the funding:

CANTOR: I have asked what are the details in the bill, and I have also said that the president has not requested that amount of money. There’s a process in place, whereby the states and localities go through an assessment as to their potential obligations and need and whether the need exceeds the capacity. Once that determination is made at the local and state level then the federal government comes in with FEMA and decides to make a recommendation whether to extend assistance. The initial estimates are nowhere near $7 billion for what we just went through. Again, I believe strongly you ought to get relief to the people who need it and no one should be standing in the way of that and we should do that responsibly.

Watch it:

Governors of states that have been affected by the most recent disasters disagree with Cantor, as did former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), who argued in 2005 that disaster relief funds in the wake of Hurricane Katrina did not need to be offset by spending reductions. Tuesday, 40 members of Congress, including 12 Republicans, sent a letter to Congressional leaders calling on them to “pass disaster assistance immediately.”

The unprecedented number of natural disasters in 2011 have left already struggling states with $36 billion in damages. Hearing calls for aid, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) responded by bringing a $7 billion relief package before the Senate.

His Republicans colleagues, however, responded by obstructing it. Last night, GOP senators successfully blocked Reid from bringing up the bill for consideration. In need of 60 votes, Reid got 53 votes in favor and 33 votes against. Fourteen senators did not vote, but every single senator who voted against relief was Republican.

Even GOP senators representing states that suffered disaster damage — North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, Alabama Sens. Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions, and Mississippi Sens. Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker — voted against aid for their constituents. Taking a page from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA), the Senate GOP refused because the relief was not offset with cuts elsewhere:

– SEN. RAND PAUL (KY): “I plan to insist my fellow senators take a long, hard look at where the funding comes from,” Paul said yesterday before the vote. “Will it be more borrowing on the backs of our children and grandchildren, or will it be from the coffers of our numerous nation-building programs overseas? America’s priorities should come first.”

– SEN. JOHN THUNE (SD): “These are different times. We have got to figure out how to pay for these things,” Thune told reporters last week.

– SEN. JEFF SESSIONS (AL): As ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, Sessions “believes the Senate should not provide the spending before getting expert advice on the precise need.” “We haven’t carefully examined every penny of it,” he added. Noting that he represents “a state that has suffered” from tornado damage, he still asked “how much more do we need” in aid?

Disaster relief — much like funding to rebuild Iraq — is traditionally not subject to offsets. But only Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins seemed to take note of that fact. She, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-MN), Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN), Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), and Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) were the only five to break with their party and vote in favor of the disaster aid.

They, however, will find support from numerous GOP governors who seek aid without offsets. Cantor’s home state Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) rebuked this kind of zero sum thinking. GOP favorite Gov. Chris Christie (NJ) characteristically did not mince words: “Our people are suffering now, and they need support now. And they [Congress].. can figure out budget cuts later.” For now, Christie — and the people’s needs — go unheeded.