Read more here.

A few dozen Republicans bucked their leadership and voted against a funding bill because they wanted deeper spending cuts. Local area Republican Lou Barletta voted against it for the opposite reason.

As previously reported, Barletta joined Democrats this week asking House GOP to accept more funding assistance for disaster victims. When they didn’t, Barletta voted “no” on his party’s bill.

“My mind was made up as long as they came up with the number…that was a sticking point for me,” Barletta said off the House floor, immediately after the vote. “For me it was easy, as we speak right now people are home in my district with boots on and generators going as they’re throwing away their life’s belongings to the curb.”

Barletta’s 11th district got hit extremely hard by the recent hurricanes.

Barletta said the GOP leadership tried hard to persuade him to vote with them, but he said he couldn’t tell his constituents that he didn’t try to get the most money for them possible. He supports a Senate Democrats plan that provides $6.9 billion for disaster relief assistance. The House bill contained $3.6 billion.