On Tuesday, the House is expected to take up a $50 billion dollar Sandy Relief package that is dividing the Republican caucus along regional lines.

The looming debate over the nation's debt ceiling and mounting deficit has some Republicans demanding cuts in unrelated Federal discretionary spending to pay for the emergency Sandy relief bill.  

Monday night, in a Rules Committee hearing that set the ground rules for the vote, Georgia Congressman Rob Woodall challenged fellow Republican, New Jersey's Rodney Frelinghuysen, whose a lead sponsor of the aid package. 

"The size of this package with the addition of your amendment is larger than many entire appropriations bills," Woodall said.

Frelinghusyen countered that the aid request matches the scale of Sandy's damage. And he assured House members once it left Washington, the money would be put to good use.

"Governor Christie has made a commitment, he is not going for this money. He is going to make sure this money is well spent. None of it wasted," Frelinghuysen said.

More than 90 amendments were proposed to the Rules Committee, which is presided over by Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas). 

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Alabama) was pushing to zero out  foreign aid, except for Israel and Pakistan, to help pay for the Sandy spending.  

"It is an easy choice between helping Americans who need aid and helping foreigners who desire aid. These are American tax dollars being spent," Brooks told the Rules panel.

But there were also Democrats looking for last minute changes. 

Congressman Jim Langevin, a Democrat from Rhode Island said the Sandy package unfairly limited Federal support for Sandy-related water infrastructure projects to just New York and New Jersey.  

"So it precludes my home state of Rhode Island, as well as Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, Delaware and every other state that received a disaster declaration following Sandy from receiving this much-needed infrastructure," Langevin testified.  

The relief package is composed of two parts, a $17 billion dollar bill that targets immediate emergency aid and a more controversial $33 billion dollar bill that is dedicated to long term mitigation and infrastructure repair. 

If the spending measure passes Tuesday it must go back to the US Senate for consideration.