Three Louisiana congressman who are requesting federal funds in the wake of devastating flooding in their home state are being taken to task for having voted against federal aid for New Jersey and New York after superstorm Sandy.

U.S. Reps. Steve Scalise and John Fleming, and U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, who was in the House in 2013, were among 179 Republicans who voted against the $50 billion Sandy relief bill.

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Republicans in the House had delayed the vote, with some members complaining that it was too costly and potentially wasteful.

The delay angered Gov. Chris Christie, who excoriated members of his own party in one of his more notable outbursts.

"It’s why the American people hate Congress," Christie said at the time.

In a column for the Los Angeles Times, Michael Hiltzik says the three Louisiana lawmakers are "likely exemplars of another Washington truism: fiscal responsibility is great, until it’s your own district that’s getting fiscally hammered."

"No one is saying that the flood-stricken communities of Louisiana don’t deserve all the assistance that the U.S. government can provide them. But so did the residents of the Sandy zone."

A spokesman for one of the congressmen said the comparison was unfair because the $50 billion Sandy bill was a supplemental appropriation.

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